Megaman Double Network 3: Spiral Into Darkness
by Ghost501
Summary: It's been almost a year since Crashman's raid on SciLab. The Net has been returned to a state of peace and this "CHAOS" has proven to be nothing but a myth created by Crashman. Or was it? The rising of previously deleted navis has become problematic and what's worse? Everyone's favorite pink navi seems to once again be caught in a cross-hairs, which may change her life forever.
1. Prologue

Ahem *breathes into mic* is this thing on? Alright, well, hi how's everyone doing. After reading a few other stories I've decided to change things up a bit. Like I did in _I'm Sorry Remastered_, and as a rule for me for now on, for any multi-chapter story I will be responding to all reviews in the beginning of each installment of said story (one-shots will be via PMs). I'm also recognizing each favorite and follower, so yeah...

**DN: DW Favoriters/Followers:** Maverick Hunter Bob Hanson, MysteriousClue, Nightshade1712, SonicAmyTailsFan, Way of the Sheikah, XWF1000, awesome4eva, knightofstories141912, shadowmwape, shanozan, srb2adx, terratasha, wolfmanncsu2000, xXTheLegendXx, Webhead99, xryuran.

**DN2: DoC Favoriters/Followers:** Blazing Romance, FeralBass, MysteriousClue, ShadowDusk94, Way of the Sheikah, XWF1000, knightofstories141912, mazinkaiser, pacotacolol64, srb2adx, terratasha, BalanceM88, Tyrant of Calamity, VanizKai, whirlgirl, xXTheLegendXx

Special Thanks as always to my co-author GAVZILLA.

By the way everyone, I just opened a devianArt last month, so I'm posting navi symbols of various navis including those in the DN Series in addition to each DN symbol (I decided to do a recolor of the symbol for each different DN). All navis that have had emblems (which has been everyone other than Mirage, Crashman, and Mortis up until now) are up there. I'm known as MCGhost501 on there (I would put up a link, put FF doesn't like links to other sites in documents... so check my profile which is where the link is).

That being said, of course, I'm putting the DN Series and my other MM stories up there. So if you want to talk about DN and don't feel like PMing me or waiting 'til the next update to hear my response, they'll be there if you want to ask questions.

Finally, just saying you guys are awesome. As of this moment, the whole DN Series has over 11k+ views and that I think is amazing for a series that is only about six months old. Thank you so much for all the support. Gav and I truly appreciate it. So now, that I'm done being sentimental into the darkness we go!

I present _Megaman Double Network 3: Spiral Into Darkness_. Don't forget your flashlights!

* * *

**Day 0 - Reactivation**

Dawn sighed as she typed in the last line of code. Finally, it was done. It had been more complicated than she figured to separate the failures models, wire the Adapt Program in Void's core programming, and finalize him. But, she had done it. She had gone over his code piece by piece in order to ensure that nothing would go wrong. He would be her key to it all. Happy with the programming, she ran Void. In seconds, the male navi opened his gray eyes.

He stood a little taller than Megaman, maybe by about five inches. Purple lines ran along the sides of Void's crimson red bodysuit. His black helmet looked more like a pointy motorcycle helmet. His short orange hair only showed in the back of his helmet. In many ways, his design resembled Megaman; after all, she did base his frame off of his. She just…modified it. Instead of Megaman's strange jetpack-like attachment, Void's back was bare. He wouldn't need anything that would even remotely slow him down. The only sign of his navi symbol, a black hole, was on the sides of his helmet; the purple dragon on his chest was nothing more than a distraction.

Void got up from the ground slowly and looked himself over. After a split second, he turned to his NetOp, "It's been a while, Dawn."

"Yes, nine months to be exact. We have a lot of ground to cover."

The red navi nodded, "What do I need to do?"

Dawn bit her lip. She wasn't exactly sure of her next step; so many things needed to get done. One of them was to destroy those three beings that continually tormented her. But she had reached a stopping point there. She pulled up a window on her computer and sighed heavily.

He just had to change the game. When Void had found Crashman, he was almost minutes away from deletion. The navi had been badly damaged and his memory data proved that. It had been impossible to recover all of it, but it had given her a small glimpse of what the navi had seen. In his final moments, he had fought Megaman. But, something had been different about the blue navi.

From all appearances, she would have thought that Megaman had rediscovered his dark soul. However, there were a few things wrong about that answer. One, Megaman had eradicated his dark soul and many traces of darkness's existence on the Net after defeating Nebula Gray. The second was the way he fought. Dawn was certain that Lan did not have a secret stash of dark chips lying around. After all, she had messed with his head enough to figure that out. This only meant one thing: Megaman had done the impossible and been able to self operate. Another impossibility. Navis needed humans in order to fight at optimal performance, being the only exception to this rule. So how did he do it? Dawn sighed. She needed a new scan. The old one probably wouldn't be able to tell her what she needed to know. Someone must have changed the blue navi's code, just like they did to her.

Roll. Dawn hated random variables and the pink navi was one of those variables. Coming out of nowhere, the navi seemed to possess some kind of latent skill set. Dawn had a bad feeling that the two merges she had seen weren't the end of it. Plus, the pink navi had a large amount of control of Megaman and vice versa. As disgustingly cute as it was, it made it difficult to get one alone without the other. She would need scans of both navis. But how?

"Ah, Void. Glad to see you running once again," a cold voice said.

"Mortis. I see you're still harvesting navis." Void greeted.

"Yes, not like I'm programmed to do much else. Ms. Dawn, the two you requested should be here within the hour. There was a small complication getting them one of them out of Central Town area. Blasted officials," the chained navi glanced around the room.

"That's alright. We're almost done. When the navis come in, have them go into Town Area immediately. You already know what I need. Also have you confirmed his status?" Dawn said nonchalantly. She never really talked with Mortis; Void was her primary concern after all. Nonetheless, they were all just cannon fodder to her.

"Yes. I found him. The device is rigged. Just like you wanted it," Mortis replied.

"Good, send our friend the email. You know what you have to do. Now go."

"Of course, Ms. Dawn." Mortis turned and jacked out into the Net.

"It seems as if I have missed a lot," Void said.

"A little. But, you will be caught up later. Right now, I need you to go to this address and get any information you can from it."

"May I ask why?"

"I did a lot of digging around; Mortis forced a lot of hands. Anyway, we discovered the address of Dr. Regal."

"The SciLab scientist?"

"No, the leader of Nebula."

* * *

For anime and manga only people who may be confused, Dr. Regal got zapped by the SoulNet Server in BN5 and lost his memory of being Nebula Commander and went back to work in SciLab.

**DN Ghost501 Challenge (_Available For ALL)_:**

Do a redesign of Roll's current merges Prya and Glacia. I don't like my idea of a recolored Roll anymore and will do a fanbased redesign as the standard for Roll's Merges from here on out.

*Szzzchct*

...hmm...I wonder what that noise is...on a side note, know what you get when you take the first letter of the usernames of DN's authors...GG, like good game guysm huh, huh?

...

Everyone's a critic...


	2. Chapter 1

**Day 1 Part 1 - Remembering The Past**

Roll grumbled as she heard the sound of an alarm clock. Of course, Mayl didn't hear it. The clock program was designed to blast a frequency that only navis could hear. Most times, the PET's ringer was only activated by the navi once he or she woke up. No, the truly annoying side of alarm clocks was only experienced by the NetOp's Net Navi. Even after years of doing this, Roll still hated waking up to the blasted thing. The sound was just as annoying as a Trumpy virus to her.

Roll got up from her place on the ground and opened a window. The sound stopped at the push of a button. Roll rubbed her eyes though she knew that she would probably just fall asleep again. Roll never really got the hang of waking up and staying up in the morning hours. Perhaps her energetic attitude during the day caused her to be this drowsy in the morning. She didn't know. All she knew was that every morning was a fight to stay awake.

"Mayl…Mayl, time to wake up." Roll said, thankful that her operator was a light sleeper. Mayl normally responded by the third attempt if she wasn't up and Roll almost never had to activate the PET's ringer to wake her up. She heard the young woman groan and mumble a thank you. Mayl had spent the whole night studying for a music theory test. The professor had warned the students that this next test was going to be a lot harder than the previous and so she wanted to be ready. Of course, it meant that she was only going on four hours sleep and falling asleep in the exact clothes she had worn the day before—an abnormality for her—but it had to be done. The girl slowly got up, grabbed some clothes from the closet, and walked into the bathroom.

The pink navi shook her head a couple of times. Maybe she should take a trip out to that new coffee café that had opened up in ACDC Area 2. Megaman had actually been waiting for the store to open up since he had generated a liking to the cyber drink. She made a mental note to suggest going on a date with him out there. Roll sighed.

ACDC Area had gotten pretty quiet over the past year. Dex had decided to go to college in Netopia and hadn't been back to the small town in months. Roll cringed when she thought about what the house would possible have looked like now. Yai had gone to YumLand to start her studies. Despite its fixation on good food, the country had become known for its business schools. However, as the two left, it also meant that Gutsman and Glyde were over a lot less. Roll was particularly good friends with Gylde, after all their NetOps had been great friends. Not seeing him almost every weekend, it had taken a little bit to get used to. Roll shook her thoughts out of her head as the bathroom door opened. She would have time to reminisce later.

"Morning, Mayl!" the pink navi said happily.

"Morning, Roll!" Mayl said as she walked over to her computer.

"Ready for your test?"

"I hope. I have no idea just how crazy it's going to be. It seems like everyone who has taken his class before are sworn to secrecy or something. They just smile and say have fun whenever I ask them about him and his tests."

"Well, I'm sure you'll do fine. You always do! Oh, by the way, don't forget that we have to go and get some light bulbs from Cyrus today."

"Oh right! I almost forgot thanks, Roll," the red hair girl paused for a moment as she thought, "I wonder if Lan wants to come with me? I think he said he had to pick up a few things there anyway. You think you could go over and ask? Oh, but he might not be awake yet."

"Mega's normally up by now. I'll just ask him; he knows their schedule better anyway."

"That's true. Lan can still be scatterbrained. Alright, I'm going for breakfast; I'll be back in a bit," Mayl said as she left for the door. It was just ACDC area. There was nothing but Mettaurs and Billys in the network so Roll wouldn't need any battle chips for her short trip.

"Alright, be back soon!" Roll said as she took her link into the Net.

* * *

When she jacked into his PC, Roll was a little surprised to see Megaman still asleep on the ground. Despite numerous attempts, he could never seem to break his early morning routine from the years of having to wake Lan up. As she got closer to the navi, she started to become a little concerned. The navi seemed to be mumbling in his sleep and his face was creased as if he was confused by something. Almost as if he was…having a dream?

Roll never remembered Mega having dreams before; plus, navis couldn't dream. Since many navis couldn't really understand emotions, dreams were very painful for them. She remembered seeing some of the early test dream navis when she was still at SciLab. They were so messed up after the test. Their emotion programs drove them insane with feelings and fears that they couldn't understand.

With their programs completely compromised, they often were deleted in order to save them. Roll felt fear ebb at her as she shoved the memories away. She didn't want to think about that right now, especially considering that for a brief moment she had actually been considered for dream testing. After her little outburst, the scientists in the room had tried to convince Dr. Itumi that Roll would be perfect for the job. Luckily, Dr. Itumi was still very knowledgeable about the navis in SciLab and refused to send Roll into what she called "an accidental torture room". The topic from there on out was taboo and a month after it was started, the project was shut down and forgotten about.

Out of all the navis created, Roll and Megaman were possible the only ones that could possible take having dreams without losing their minds due to Roll's artificial soul and Megaman's human one. However, they weren't even programmed for it—something Roll had been thankful for. So, if Megaman really was dreaming, how and why was he?

"Mega?" Roll said as she shook him a bit. Megaman merely ignored the attempt and continued his fitful sleep. Roll frowned as she shook him again. No response, "Mega, wake up!" She shook him harder.

Finally, after a few seconds, he woke up. The blue navi grabbed her arms, causing her to stop. For a few seconds, Roll saw fear in his eyes. But the emotion was soon covered up as he came to his senses. After taking a quick survey of the room, Megaman turned his head towards her.

"Roll? What are you doing here?" the blue navi asked.

"I was coming to ask a question, but that can wait. Are you okay?"

"I'm fine. Never better," he said with a forced smile, hoping that Roll wouldn't notice.

"No, you're not." Being his best friend and girlfriend much of her life, she had learned to see right through him. The pink navi stared directly in his green eyes, "What's wrong?"

"It's nothing. Probably a bug in the Navi Customizer or something. We just updated it while I was asleep. Something's probably not in the right place. I'm fine, honest."

He was lying to her. She knew it. Megaman was always put into sleep mode whenever the PET or the Navi Customizer was being updated. If he was in sleep mode, he wouldn't have been able to wake up until Lan or someone unlocked him using the PET. Roll wouldn't have been able to wake him up.

Roll's voice caught. Should she call him out on it? The last time she forced something out of him, they both had a major blowout. The pink navi really wasn't sure if she wanted to repeat history. Sighing, Roll decided to go along with it. She couldn't force him to tell her. She would just have to be patient.

"Okay." She said, unable to say that she believed him, "So, are you and Lan free later today? Mayl and I are going to Electown and we were wondering if you wanted to come with us."

"Today? Yeah...I think…Oh no, wait. We're can't. Lan's going for some help in Set Theory today and since this is a harsh chapter, he going to be there for a while. Sorry," he said sheepishly.

"It's okay. So, I guess I'll see you later then."

"Yeah," the blue navi said before Roll hugged him.

"Whatever it is, you can tell me when you're ready," she whispered. Megaman hugged her a little harder before they broke apart. They both said goodbye and Roll headed back home.

* * *

"I told you that you were going to do great on it!" Roll said excitedly.

Mayl's music theory test had been much easier than she expected. She didn't know if it was the hours of studying or if it was just an easy test and her professor had psyched them out. Whatever the case, she was just happy that it was over. She entered the train station and bought her ticket for Electown. The car wasn't been too filled since the lunch rush hour was over. As she looked around for a place to sit, a red haired woman caught her eye, Saria.

Over the recent fall semester, Saria had transferred into DenTech University, which made it easier for the two to get in touch with each another. Since she had been cleared from the hospital over a year ago, the two girls had become really good friends and began hanging out a lot. She hadn't replaced Yai, but it was nice to still have someone to hang out with.

"Hey, Saria!" Mayl said as she took the seat next to her.

"Mayl! Wow, I didn't expect to see you here." Saria said. The young woman looked like she had had some trouble sleeping; faint black rings were under her eyes.

"Yeah, I'm just heading to Electown to go get a few things for the house. What are you up to?"

"Oh, I'm actually need to catch a different train. I, um…" the yound woman said, her cheeks flushed.

"She fell asleep because she stayed up all night studying for a World History test and missed her stop." Saber said quickly and returned back to his conversation with Roll. Unless the situation demanded kid gloves, he had always been the just-rip-the-Band-Aid-off kind of navi.

"Saber!" she groaned. Sometimes, she swore he just knew how to get under her skin.

"Is Saber your navi now?" Mayl asked.

"Yeah. Dad said he didn't mind and Saber was more than happy to do it. Plus, turns out DenTech actually makes you have a navi when you register." Saria said sadly. She was still getting used to hearing a voice coming out of PET again, "Dad said he would just go with a standard navi for now, but I don't think he's going to. He's been navi-less for a couple of weeks now and still hasn't slowed down."

"And you're okay with it?" Even after becoming good friends, Tox had been somewhat of a taboo subject between Mayl and Saria. For a long time, Saria had rejected the idea of taking a new navi. She never really showed it, but she actually still was quite upset about her friend's deletion. Saria had become depressed for a while before she finally started to use her PET again, especially after somewhat getting over the fact that she had been the bullet to take her navi's life. Granted, she had been under mind control, but she still carried a bit of self-hate around for not being able to stop it from happening.

"It's fine. She would have wanted me to move on anyway. By now, she probably would have been nagging me to get a new one. You know if she wasn't…gone." Saria swallowed. The red head cleared her throat before turning back, "So, how's Lan?"

"He's fine," Mayl put on a hand on her shoulder.

"That's good," Saria sighed, "I'm sorry about just now. It's just that…oh forget it…"

"What?"

"It's just that. Well, both Lan and I got used. Both of use were forced to do whatever that stupid voice wanted. How come at the end of the day, I was the only one to lose my navi? I know what happened to him and Megaman. I know he was in the hospital a lot longer than I was. But, how come I was the one who had to…" the red haired teen but her head in her hands. She knew she shouldn't be saying this. It was selfish and cruel. She was talking to the boy's girlfriend for crying out loud!

But she couldn't help it. Behind the sadness, she was angry. Angry at herself. Angry at Lan. Angry at 'The Voice'. It wasn't fair. She wasn't apart of anything. All she did was go to a blasted science convention! To be honest, she hadn't even known what that woman was doing before she was knocked out. When she had asked about copying others ideas, she had meant that as a joke. It was actually not that common for people to come to the fair to steal ideas and many ideas in the science community were shared. But at the end of the day, she was the one who lost.

"It was hard for him too."

"Huh?" the girl looked up, sniffling a bit.

"Before Lan went to sixth grade, he and Megaman, along with Chuad, Dex, and another kid named Tora stopped another Wily scheme to destroy Net society. But something happened. When Megaman and Lan tried to escape, they got swallowed up by this program called Alpha."

"How did Lan get eaten by a program? It didn't come to the real world did it?"

"Not as far as I know. The farthest it got was taking control of military tanks. Anyway, the boys found this machine. I forgot what Lan said it was called, but it would allow an operator to go into the cyber world. The navi and operator could fuse together and enter Full Synchro. There was just one problem with it. If something happened to the operator in the cyber world, he or she was affected physically in the real world."

"So if they died in the cyber world…"

"I don't want to know what would have happened if that was the case." Mayl shivered. She had had nightmares about that exact scenario happening to Lan and her never seeing him again after he told her this story for quite some time when she was a kid.

"So what happened?"

"Well, after Alpha swallowed them, they thought they were done for. However, Megaman thought of a way out. He would self-destruct. The blast would give Lan enough time to jack out and save himself."

"But wouldn't that delete him too?"

"Yes, Megaman thought it was worth it to save his operator rather than condemn them both," Mayl said sadly. She hated remembering this subject. At that point, everything in her life had gone straight into a fire. Lan had been depressed for weeks and Roll hadn't been too far away from going down the same path. It was then when she realized the truth: you never know what you have until it's gone. Megaman was a huge part of her life because Roll and Lan were a huge part of her life. Without Megaman, her whole world seemed to just crumble.

"I've seen what those two are like now. Where they that close when they were younger?"

Mayl paused for a moment, careful of her words, "They were inseparable. If navis and humans could be brothers, that's what they were. Lan was a wreck after Megaman was gone. It took a lot of us to keep him from being lost in depression. For a while, he actually began to improve. But then, we learned that we actually were required to have navis for the sixth grade. Lan almost relapsed the very first time he heard it. Eventually he let reality set in, but I don't think he ever got over it."

"Wait, if Megaman was deleted, then how…?"

"That was something I never got around to asking Lan. Though if he did know, I don't think he ever cared. When Megaman came back, it was like everything in his world righted itself. After that, things just got better for him." Mayl smiled. Lan had never seemed happier when he walked into the classroom. When everyone asked him what happened, he merely said wait for it. After Ms. Mari told them to jack in their navis, Lan yelled at the top of his voice, "Jack in, Megaman, Execute!". Though Ms. Mari was happy for him, she told him to stop screaming in her class.

"Mayl…" Saria said quietly.

"Yes?" she responded.

"Thanks." Saria hugged her friend. Before Mayl could reply, the train rolled up to a stop, "I guess this is your stop."

"Yeah, it is. So, I'll see you around?"

"You should, unless I have another test."

"Don't fall asleep again, you might miss your stop," Mayl said giving the girl a hug before walking towards the exit. She squashed down a laugh when she heard her friend sputter. Saria was too easy sometimes.

"Just wait Sakurai, I'll catch you one of these days," she retorted.

"Yeah, and I'm an ace net battler. See you later, Saria."

"Bye, Mayl!"

And with that, Mayl exited the car.

* * *

If anyone is wondering about my views about dreaming navis using game logic, check out _By Her Hand_, and what I think Roll's life was after Megaman deleted himself, check out _Doesn't Change The Fact_.

Ah self-advertisement...Speaking of that. Would you guys like me to keep up the BN/SF Writer Idea Forum? Attention seems spotty so I just want to know.

*Szzzchct**Szzzchct**Szzzchct*

...and that noise is still there...I should really go figure what that's about.


	3. Chapter 2

**Day 1 Part 2 - Robbing Extravaganza**

"Whoa," Mayl said as she stepped out onto the street. Normally, Electown was filled on a Friday afternoon with eager customers. Today however, the streets were much less filled. Not only that, but several stores were closed. Mayl had a bad feeling in her stomach as she started looking around, realizing that some of the stores seemed to be damaged. As she peered into on of the stores, she noticed that water seemed to be all over the floor. Something was wrong.

As she continued, the scene became more dismal. More and more stores had closed their doors. It seemed like almost all of Electown had closed down. Mayl turned a corner and was happy to see that the appliance store was still open. She walked in to see the store almost empty of people. Then again, no one really went into an appliance store on a Friday and mostly headed to the arcades that had been added to the town over the years. Mayl walked down an isle and grabbed a couple packets of light bulbs from the shelf. As she walked over to the check-out, she flashed a smile at Cyrus, the store owner, who was acting as cashier today. The young woman had known the old man for quite some time; he was pleasant and very honest. Today though, he seemed upset.

"Hey, Cyrus," Mayl said as she gave him her items.

"Afternoon, Mayl. Getting some light bulbs today?" the raven haired man asked.

"Yeah, I have to replace some at home. How are you?"

"I've been better," the man sighed.

"Does it have anything to do with the reason all these stores are closed today?"

"Unfortunately it does. I'm guessing you saw all those stores coming in," Mayl nodded, "They were all robbed and attacked last night. Someone got into all accounts and just took everything. A lot of the small local stores couldn't afford to stay open or pay anyone, especially after the owners realized about the property damage. I guess I should be glad that I wasn't hit, but still so many people just lost their jobs. It was quite depressing seeing so many walk out today. Anyway, since all the stores are closed, business has been bad for the rest of us who are still open. Though I guess word hasn't spread as fast as I thought it had."

"Oh my, that's terrible! Are the officials doing anything?"

"What they can, which is not enough. They can't replace the money that was lost until they find whoever did this. Unfortunately, no one knows who did do it. All we know is that anyone who had navis guarding their accounts woke up to find them all deleted. Whoever came through here was strong enough to take them all out and get away. Plus, all of the stores faced some structural damage. Some of them seemed to face fire damage will others had water damage and their systems are completely down.

"There's nothing much the banks can do either. They can only refund so much and what's worse is that those access codes that we're guarded in the stores allowed them to get into the bank system completely undetected. All the transactions were authorized; problem is that they were accessed by the wrong person. Overall, it's just a wreck."

"Wow, that's horrible." Roll said from the PET.

"Unfortunately, my little navi friend, life can be horrible. I guess that there really are some people who have learned to ignore simple human decency," The man sighed, "That'll be 500 zenny."

"Wait, I normally pay 800 for lights."

"You've been a loyal customer. I'll cut you a deal. Plus, I might as well make someone's day; today's been kinda bad."

Mayl smiled, "Thanks, but go ahead and take the other 300. Have a good day, Cyrus."

"You too Ms. Sakurai. And thank you." Cyrus stuttered.

Mayl grabbed her bag and was about to leave when she heard the fire alarm in the building go off. Before she could even get a word out, the sprinkler system turned on. Mayl covered her head in vain as her hair got soaked by the water. "Cyrus, is everything okay?" she asked. She didn't smell smoke anywhere and there wasn't any sign of a fire anywhere in the store.

"I'm not sure." Cyrus pulled out his PET and tried to access the control system to the store, "That's strange. I can't access the system! I can't turn off the sprinklers!"

"Mayl! I might be able to turn them off if you jack me in!" Roll said.

"Okay. Cyrus, how do I get into the network?" Mayl asked.

"There should be a jack in port in the back office. My navi should still be in the system. Wait, oh no. If he's there….then, how is this happening?" Cyrus said, as his blue eyes went wide.

Mayl didn't have an answer for the man and rushed off into the back office. Luckily, the door had been left open and she walked in. The computer's screen gave the whole room an eerie red glow as the lights suddenly cut out.

"It's getting worse. Alright Roll, I'm sending you in."

"Whenever you're ready, Mayl!"

"Jack in, Roll, Execute!"

* * *

As Roll jacked into the Sprinkler Control Comp 1, she noticed that several blocks had been set up around various platforms. As she walked forward, she saw a Mr. Program walking around carefully. It seemed to not want to move from its protection behind the metal cube.

"What's going on?" Roll said as she approached the green program.

"It's terrible. My friend and I were washed away. We were just standing in our places like normally when a huge wave came out of nowhere. Now, she's somewhere in this area."

"If I get you guys back to your places will that stop the sprinkler system?"

"Sprinkler system? You're not here about the money? The navis that came in here grabbed Cyrus's navi and took him to the back of Sprinkler Control Comp 2. He's the only one other than Cyrus that knows the codes to the security system and the money accounts."

"So, this isn't just a disturbance." Mayl said sadly. Heaven forbid that these things just be simple.

"If you return us back to our original spots, we should be able to shut off the sprinkler system. But you'll have to be fast. If that navi realizes what you're up to, he'll flood this place with water. If that happens, we'll be displaced again. My spot is just over there. I don't know where my friend is, but this is not a big area. She shouldn't be too hard to find," the program said.

"Alright I'll get you guys back to your spots. Leave it to me!" Roll said and started to bring the program back to his home.

* * *

As Roll entered Sprinkler Control Comp 2, she felt a massive heat wave hit her. Mayl had told her that the sprinklers had gone off, but now the whole building was beginning to heat up. As the pink navi continued, she noticed yet another Mr. Program.

"Hot! Hot! It's too hot in here!" it yelled.

"Calm down, it's going to be okay! What do I need to do to get the network back online?" Roll asked.

"That navi in the center is causing everything to get so hot. Then that other one pushed all the water out of this part of the network. Oh…if only I could get that water released out of the reserve pipe!"

"Where's the reserve pipe?"

"It's no good! The navi destroyed the panel that connected to the system valve which would open the pipe before taking roost in the center of this control system."

"Which means that the only way this network is going to go back to normal is by beating the navi causing this mess." Mayl said.

"Not exactly…" Roll thought, "If I find the right spot…"

"You can just shoot the pipe open!" Mayl finished.

The pink navi tapped her helmet and a blue visor popped down in front of her. Roll looked towards the center. From what she could tell, there were three navis in the center. One of them had to be Cyrus's navi, which meant that the other two were the ones pulling the robbery. With the network on the fritz, it was probably hard for Cyrus's jack out signal to be received; the man was making sure that fire engines weren't showing up. Seeing that the navis were all distracted, Roll edged closer to the pipe program, which looked like an actual pipe. The heads-up display installed in the visor turned on.

Placing herself behind a metal cube, Roll's hand switched to her bow. She locked onto the blockade which was blocking the reserve water from flooding in.

"Buster Up, download!" Mayl said.

Roll took in a breath and fired. Due to its breaking element abilities, the arrow shattered the door and the water suddenly began to flood in the network. The temperature quickly fell.

"Great shot, Roll!"

"Thanks!" the pink navi said before hurrying off towards the center of the comp.

* * *

When Roll got to the center of the computer, she noticed a beam of light suddenly leave. Cyrus's navi must have just jacked out. Did he give them the codes that they had wanted? As she got closer, Roll wasn't really surprised when she saw two navis accessing the computer database. However, she was shocked that she recognized who they were. It was Diveman and Blastman! The two navis had captured her, Gutsman, and Glyde when Megaman harbored the power of Cybeast Gregar. But they had been deleted a long time ago. Hadn't they?

"Hey! Stop!" Roll said, but the two navis paid no attention to her. Did they not hear her? Seeing no other options, she activated her bow and fired a Roll Arrow at the computer. As the arrow embedded itself into its target, the computer began to spark and within a few seconds the system shutdown.

The two navis turned around and glared murderously at the pink navi. Their lack of talking though unnerved Roll more than anything they could have said. One look from them and the pink navi knew that she was in trouble, "Mayl!"

"Right! Battle Routine, Set!"

"Execute!"

* * *

"Air Bomber!" Blastman roared as he sent a moving explosion Roll's way. The pink navi jumped out of the way and countered with her Roll Arrow. As she moved, she hadn't seen Diveman submerge himself and travel behind her. The navi silently summoned missiles as Roll prepared to attack.

"Ahh!" she screamed as the attack hit her.

"Roll! Aqua Needle 3! Glacia Merge! Download!" Mayl said.

Roll's black bodysuit color was covered with her blue vest and skirt and her hands and feet were now hand gloves and boots. She tossed the scarf behind her as she raised her hand and summoned three needles to attack Blastman. The navi sputtered as the bubbles surrounded him. Roll switched back to her bow as she turned to fire at Diveman. Unfortunately, the navi was still hiding "underwater". While her back was turned, Blastman launched another Air Bomber at her. Roll fell forwards as the attack connected.

"Freeze Dome!" She yelled as an igloo appeared around her. Outside of her dome, she could hear both navis attacking her barrier, "Mayl, we need a plan!"

Mayl shut her eyes and tried to think. She had never fought two navis at the same time before. How would she be able to hit both of them? Nothing in her chip folder would be able to do the trick. As Mayl opened her eyes, she saw her navi watching desperately as her barrier was crumbling. She just had to think of something. Then something caught her eye. That wasn't there before.

"Roll, where did you get this sword chip data?"

"What sword chip data? Wait, you mean the Variable Sword? Saber gave it to me while you and Saria were talking." Roll said quickly as her shelter took another hit, "Wait, Mayl! That's perfect!"

"Variable Sword, download!" Mayl said and Roll's arm turned into a large green sword. Her blade began to glow white. All she needed to do was wait for the right moment.

Outside the icicle, both navis grinned evilly. They nodded to each other and fired.

"Blast Fire!"

"Dive Bomb!"

The combined force broke the barrier. However, they weren't expecting the blue navi to jump into the air completely unharmed. Roll launched an Elemental Sonic, a four wave attack of the elements. Both navis groaned as she landed back on the ground and switched back to her Roll Arrow. Before she could fire, several chains wrapped around her. She couldn't move!

"Enough!" a voice barked and a gray navi with chains around his body appeared, "You two are dismissed. Take whatever money you got and head back to base. Further instructions will be awaiting your arrival," Roll opened her eyes as the two navis jacked out. The new being turned toward her with cold eyes, "And you! Stay out of the affairs of CHAOS! What we do is none of your business!"

"CHAOS? What! You actually exist?" Roll asked, as she struggled against her chains.

"I thought that all this ended with Crashman!" Mayl said. The officials had never been able to find this organization and all "related" problems to them vanished after Crashman had disappeared form the Net. Mayl was starting to get nervous. There was no way they could fight this new navi. Roll was still hurt from the last fight that she wasn't even sure if they won or not. She tried to jack her navi out but the chains seemed to be blocking the PET's signal.

"There are many things you don't know young navi. But do not worry about it. After all," the navi said as he looked at her, "You have much bigger things to worry about. Ghosts, as you can see, are returning to the Net. And believe me, you have no idea just how much destruction they want to cause. Not even you understand what power lies in these ghosts. But you'll find out. Don't worry about that!" The navi laughed as he jacked out of the network.

"You okay Roll?" Mayl asked concerned.

"A little banged up, but I think I'm fine. I'm sorry about the money. I couldn't…"

"Hey, as long as you're okay, I don't care," Mayl said as she jacked Roll out of the network.

* * *

As Mayl entered her house, a sudden exhaustion hit her. Roll, who had gotten extremely tired after the fight, was already asleep. Cyrus had been upset when his navi had told him that he had to give up the codes. But, the man was happy that no one was harmed. He would restart his business again once the officials had located the navis or he found the money to afford to open again.

Still though, she was upset that she wasn't able to help her friend. She was even more upset about the resurgence of CHAOS. Too exhausted to think straight, Mayl flopped on her bed and was asleep in mere minutes.

* * *

Update: Monday

And thus DN3 has finally kicked off! Hopefully, this story will be worth the wait for you guys. So, in the Prologue I started changing things around and now I do have a question for you guys. What kind of style do you guys like?

DN1 - Heavy BN (game) outline in terms of story formatting including a proper leading into the final boss

DN2 - More of a story bit and more of an abstract style of BN outline (it's more of a story flow rather than a more predictable this happens now then that happens then Oh, new power)

DN3 is already written so there's not much I can do about its style but there are more DNs. Thought I'd just get your opinions is all...

*Szzzchct**Szzzchct**Szzzchct**Szzzchct**Szzzchct* (Void: There is a pattern to these things...)

Hey, do you guys want me to do previews to next chps at the end of these things?

_***Szzzchct***_

ALRIGHT! This stupid thing has been around for three chapters! Seriously, who the heck is doing that! I know it's not the studio, I just fixed this place!

*starts looking around studio for three hours, five minutes, two seconds, and one millisecond*.

And that makes every thing in this place...well...I don't hear it. _***Szzzchct***_That's it. I'm done for the day and Stream's just...oh wait, he's not in DN. Well, but Megaman, Roll, Lan, and Mayl are kinda busy right now. Don't even want to know what Dawn, Mortis, and Void are doing. What ever happened to the days when people used to just hang around this place...*sighes and turns to see Bass using the Static battlechip*

...Huh, in hind sight I should have figured it was you trying to annoy me. Bass what do you want?... (Bass turns and walks away). Geez, he's been complaining all week. Something about Gav and I working on a Double Network/Starforce crossover with BassDS or something. That or he's still upset over the whole me taking his buster thing in DN1...Something like that.

Well, that's it for me! See ya on Monday! Also, cause it's appropriate ( watch?v=8qxhfXWpzt4&list=UUc-gSWvy8FUimnnqv3SaLJg)


	4. Chapter 3

**Review Responses:**

**True-inTha-Blue: **Thanks, man! I hope the same too!

**ShadowDusk94:** Thanks! Um...it could have been the two navis in the end of this chapter. They like messing with appliances. Anypanel, just a little correction. Mortis revives navis. Void is Dawn's best creation as of yet. Thanks (Gav does also have a huge hand in how these stories play out so I'm sure he appreciates the recognition very much). As for me, thanks as always!

* * *

**Chapter 2 Part 1 - I'm Baacck!**

_'__**Just delete him. Here and now. You know you want to...**__'_

_Megaman twisted as he tried to go back to sleep. This nightmare was worse than the last one. Now he was beginning to hear the thoughts out loud. Pretty soon, he would actually start losing sleep over them._

_'__**He's going to take her. Are you just going to let that happen? We can make sure it doesn't happen...**__'_

'_Come on, Hub. Snap out of it. This isn't real! It's just a dream. You're not hearing anything!' the blue navi thought as he forced his eyes closed. He had been reliving the scene of him turning dark for who knew how long. Every time was just a different part of the picture. _

'"_**You know. I was just going to delete you. But now I'm sending you back in pieces! Dark Beast!" In mere seconds, Megaman's body suit had changed. Dark red armor replaced the black and the "eyes" on his helmet were a pitch black color.**__' _

_How was he able to bring Gregar back? Did he bring Gregar back? Megaman groaned as he tried desperately to go back to sleep. He needed this whole thing to be over. He wanted his old life back when he didn't have to worry about dark souls or Cybeasts. When he was yelling at Lan to wake up in the morning or playing tag with Roll. He didn't want this. He didn't want any of this!_

"_**But you did, Hub,**__" a voice said. It was cold, but unmistakably his._

_Megaman quickly picked himself up from the ground and scanned the area. Four feet in front of him was… himself. Just as he had last year…except different. He was not dressed as the Dark Beast Over or even the dark form he had taken as Dark Mega. No, he looked like a young man dressed in black windbreaker, a dark blue shirt, and black jeans. The teen's red eyes seem to almost pierce straight though him._

"_Who are you?" Megaman said, backing up._

"_**I'm hurt. You don't recognize me? How could you not? I am you,**__" he said, walking closer._

"_No…I'm not…I'm not you!" Megaman said, pulling his buster out. This wasn't making any sense. This person looked just like he would have if he was actually alive as Hub Hikari. Well, at least how he thought he would have looked._

"_**That won't work on me,**__" 'Hub' said as his hand also turned into a buster, "__**I know your every trick. Every feeling. Every move. There is nothing you know that I don't.**__"_

"_You're lying!"_

"_**What hero boy? Did you think that the darkness was merely eradicated when you defeat Nebula Gray? You got rid of all the digital darkness. The navis were purged but both of us know that you're more than **_**just **_**a navi.**__"_

"_You…you can't…."_

"_**Nebula Gray was formed out of the evil of **_**man's**_** darkness, Hub Hikari. You may be a navi, but you're human too! I've always been with you, just waiting for the moment when you needed me.**__" Dark Hub saw confusion in Megaman's face, "__**I'm not Dark Mega, Hub. I'm a necessary evil. I don't just try and get you to steal and candy bar you want. Well, maybe on occasion, if that applied to you navis. No…I'm much worse than that. I'm the side you hide behind closed doors and pray that no one finds even after destroying the key.**__"_

"_No…you're not me!"_

"_**Really? The uncanny similarities between us isn't doing it for you? Or is it that you can't accept that you have much potential to do things you never thought you could. Well, allow me to prove to you just how real and necessary I am. Let's take Crashman for example. I gave you peace. You got to destroy the navi who wanted to take your precious Roll from you. Let's not forget that he murdered several scientists the day before as well.**__"_

"_Leave her out of this!" Megaman roared, still unable to forget her fear from that day._

"_**What? Oh yes, you did scare her pretty badly. What with you roaring and slashing all over the place. Ah well, collateral damage. Though thanks to her hanging around you all of Christmas, you did manage to drown me out easily enough. Note to self: remind Roll to butt out.**__" The dark soul glanced at the blue bomber who seemed to be getting angrier by the second, "__**Oh, calm down. I'm not going to delete her. The point is this: I'm not just going to go away like last time. No, this time…I'm going to stick around. Copyman doesn't just turn into Crashman on a whim. Hell, the navi's been gone for years and yet he's was up for a while. There's a storm coming, Hub. I can't go away. No matter how much you want me to. You're just going to have to learn to deal with me. But don't worry, I'll be tormenting every night like I have until you do. Think of it as an incentive to learn quickly.**__"_

"_You're sick." Megaman said, looking into Dark Hub's crimson eyes._

_The dark soul merely laughed, "__**I know. Now wake up.**__"_

* * *

Megaman yelled as he snapped awake. He was breathing heavily as he began to hear the PET's alarm clock go off. Just another nightmare. As he got control of himself, the dream began to float back into his memory. His dark soul? Not Dark Mega? He gripped his head as he tried to make sense of it all.

Since Wednesday, Megaman had started having these dreams. Yesterday, he woke up to the sound of a howling ringing in his ears. However, for whatever reason, this dream had terrified his the most. All that evil…inside of him. No, he had to find some way to get rid of it. But why now? Since that last incident last year, the dark soul had been silent. Wait, no…that wasn't true. Megaman felt a shiver run through him as a memory from an event three days run through his mind.

"_Lan, I don't think anyone is here. Maybe the cause of that computer malfunction was just a virus…" Megaman said as he scanned the cyber space. After class, a professor had complained about one of the computers acting funny. Although she had to leave for a staff meeting, the boys got her permission to check out the computer. Lan jacked Megaman into the device to figure out what was the problem._

"_Well, if it was, it's gone now. Let's just correct the program and head home," Lan said._

_The blue navi walked up to the control panel and pressed a few buttons. Within seconds, the screen changed from red to blue. Right before he jacked out though, Megaman heard the sound of timer next to him. He looked down to see a small claw like device next to his foot. As he rolled out of the way, the bomb blew up. Smoke filled the field._

_Megaman could feel his rage rise. Crashman…it had to be. He was the only navi with that kind of attack. But why was he infecting computers at a university? That didn't seem anywhere close to his style at all. As the smoke cleared, Megaman looked out to see the orange navi smirking at him._

_Megaman drew his buster and fired, "Lan!" he growled._

_The brunette froze. He knew his brother needed him to fight Crashman, but something told him to not to. Megaman needed to be jacked out now. The last time they fought… No, not again. Merely seconds before Lan reached for the jack out button, Crashman laughed as he brought something from behind his back. It was an arrow…a Roll arrow. When Lan hit the button, a small part of him wasn't surprised when Megaman didn't jack out. _

"_What did you do to her?" Megaman growled. _

_Crashman smirked as he crushed the arrow in his hands, causing the projectile to turn into nothing but data bits. The navi aimed his drill at the shaking blue navi._

_**'What any good villain does…he deleted her. What are you going to do about it?'**_

"_Roll…You're going to pay for that!" the navi yelled as his blue bodysuit changed to black. His green eyes were replaced with red and his navi symbol voided itself of color becoming nothing more than a white icon with black lines, "Dark Yo-Yo! Dark Blade!"_

_Dark Hub's left hand switched to a yo-yo which he rocketed at the navi. Crashman deflected the attack as his sword appeared in place of his drill. The navi smirked as the black navi charged with his own weapon. The two blades clashed with neither side letting up or showing weakness._

_Dark Hub's mind, even for being a dark soul, was clouded. Crashman had finally obliterated the line. Now, nothing was going to save him from deletion this time. Lan stared in disbelief as his brother once again attacked, "Megaman stop! You've got to control yourself!" He hated being locked out from his navi; the PET had pretty much turn into a useless deice. After the last time this happened, his father couldn't find anything wrong with Hub. So why was this happening again?_

"_Dark Burner! Dark Lance!" Dark Hub pushed Crashman away as his left arm became a flamethrower and fired dark purple flames at him. The orange navi would have dodged, but dark green bamboo shard ejected from the ground and prevented movement. The flames burned around him as the foliage acted as a kindling. Within seconds, the black navi grabbed his enemy and hurled him across the field. The navi's buster glowed an eerie purple as he fired a charged shot._

_As the orange navi got up, Dark Hub realized something. Crashman's face had melted into an empty face. It looked like the navi had pulled a white bodysuit over him. Despite seeing him in a different form, Megaman knew this was Copyman. The navi seemed to smirk before he disappeared, deleted. He mouthed one word before he was truly gone._

_Monster._

_Dark Hub's color began to come back. "Lan…what…?" Megaman asked, blinking his green eyes a few times._

"_I think it's time to jack out, Megaman," his brother said. _

Megaman looked at his hands. That's why he was having these nightmares…somehow he had woken up his dark side again! The blue navi took a breath; he had beaten this before and he could do it again. After a minute, he got up. He just needed not to think about it; the less attention he gave it, the less power it would have, "Lan! Time to get up!"

"Megaman, it's Saturday..." his brother groaned, "And nine in the morning!"

"Yeah, well…" Come to think of it, he hadn't heard the alarm this morning. He really didn't have a reason to wake Lan up this early. He kinda had just done it out of habit. To his saving grace, the PET went off. As Megaman opened the email, he smiled, "Well, your girlfriend just emailed. Mayl wants you to come over as soon as you can. Since you're up, I'll just head over now and let her know you'll be over in ten."

"No! Megaman wait!" Lan groaned as his brother disappeared onto the Net, "This is payback isn't it? I told him I was sorry for deleting those letter songs." He grumbled to himself and rolled out of bed.

* * *

As the blue navi ran towards Roll's PC, he was unaware of someone watching him from the other side of the area. Mortis grinned in delight. He hadn't expected Megaman to be so close to Roll's comp at all. He knew that they were neighbors, but he thought that he lived somewhere else. The navi closed his eyes. Yes, so many ghosts in this place. So many voices crying out to him. He held a blank chip in his hand. Soon…he would be ready to put his plans forward.

Mortis heard two navis walk up behind him. As he turned, he saw Flashman and Sparkman before him. Mortis took a small sigh of relief. That woman was beginning to become more and more of a hawk about his actions since he had accidentally brought her the wrong navi that one day. She had begun to think that he was becoming…incompetent. Well, he would show her just how competent he could be. He glanced back at the navis before him; so Ms. Dawn hadn't wanted these two. It didn't mean that he didn't have any use for them.

"Now, listen well you two. I've already told you what you need to do. If you mess up, I will personally rip your data apart byte by byte and I won't be so foolish as to bother reviving you again. Do we understand?" the two beings nodded before hurrying away. Mortis knew that these "shells" still had memories of their earlier lives, but his programming corrupted theirs and made them not care enough to investigate it. Still, it was so much work to be a puppet master sometimes. Ah well, Dawn wasn't the only one who could do research. Plus, she did want him working this assignment personally.

Mortis turned back to see the blue navi already gone. _'Enjoy peace while you can, Megaman. I will plunge this world into darkness far before you can stop me.'_

"Enjoying the view, Mortis?" Void said, snapping him out of his thoughts.

The chained navi was taken aback as his red superior appeared, "No, Void. Just planning."

"What planning do you need to do? You're only priority should be your mission."

"I'm allowed to think through my plan to complete my task, aren't I?"

"I suppose so. Report back to Dawn at your earliest chance. She wants a status report."

"I see. Well I'll be off then," Mortis said as he walked past Void.

"Oh, by the way…did I see two unauthorized navis walking around?"

"Dawn must have missed a few pieces in your programming. You saw nothing."

Void advanced quickly on the navi. He was only two inches shorter than him, but his hidden face gave him the upper hand in terms of a stare down, "Watch your tongue, Mortis."

"What? She's human and every human," he started to walk past the navi, "makes mistakes." Mortis stalked down the rest of the pathway. Oh, how he was getting tired of little Mr. Perfect.

* * *

"And you sure you saw Blastman and Diveman?" Lan asked. After walking over to her house, Mayl had told the Hikaris about their Electown encounter yesterday.

"We're sure it was them," Roll said.

"Well, that makes four confirmed and ten unconfirmed." Megaman groaned.

"Fifteen?" Mayl's eyes grew wide.

"Yep. Quickman, Blastman, Diveman, Laserman, Flameman, Magicman, Copyman, Gravityman, Elementman, and Circusman have all had reports of being sited. But only Copyman, Quickman, Blastman, and Diveman had been fought. The others are only seen for a second before disappearing again. And those are only the ones that have been reported. This mess is giving the officials a run for their money. Even Chaud's confused by this," Lan explained. Megaman had run into Protoman about three weeks ago. The navi had been called out to the Sky Area about another rising, but it had been a false alarm.

"I don't get it. I know that navis can come back as ghosts, but I didn't think they could do it to this extreme." Roll commented.

"They can't. Normally Net Resurfacing destroys any trace of navi ghosts on the Net. But I guess nothing is ever deleted forever. Someone is using the fragments of the data that's left and building up from there. Either that or he or she really likes making old navis," Megaman sighed.

"Well, is there anything we can do?" Mayl asked.

"Find whoever is doing this and stop him or her. The only thing we have to go on is that people who have seen the revived navis have seen a strange chained navi beforehand," Lan grimaced. Normally this navi was never seen with the revived ones. It was either one or the other and both were extremely reclusive.

"Wait, a chained navi? I saw him yesterday!" Lan and Megaman turned their eyes to Roll. Seeing that she had the floor, she continued, "He popped up in the middle of my fight with Blastman and Diveman. He told something about returning back home and then told me that he wanted me to stay away from CHAOS."

Lan and Megaman went silent for a while. In fact, Megaman had almost turned into a statue. CHAOS had been the "organization" that Crashman had warned him about. However, with all evidence seeming to point towards Crashman for the break in at SciLab, everyone had forgotten about CHAOS. No leads had been found regarding its existence. While it was sad to know that the number one lead in finding whoever had manipulated him and his brother was gone, it was nice to know that an organization wasn't in their midst. At least, so it had seemed.

Now, it seemed that CHAOS was more than just an urban myth. He could almost feel Dark Hub smiling in the back of his head. CHAOS existing would mean he would have someone to blame. Someone to destroy for manipulating his brother and getting him to control Electopia. Someone to blame for Crashman's problems from last year. He swallowed hard and tried to focus on something else.

"Mega? You okay?" Roll whispered. He hadn't notice her walk up next to him.

"Yeah, fine," he answered back.

"Really, cause you're shaking."

"It's just cold in here, that's all."

"It's 75 degrees. You're lying to me! Again!"

"No, I'm not. Look, I'm fine see?"

"No you're not!"

"Can we talk about this later?"

"Fine…" Roll said she walked off. What was with her? Roll wasn't known for having a short fused temper. Plus, yesterday was the first day she had ever caught him with his nightmare problem. So why was she going crazy? As she looked back at him, he could have sworn that her green irises were a single shade darker than normal. But in a flash, it was gone.

Megaman shook his head; this Dark Hub situation was giving him more problems than he thought. He turned his attention to the two operators as they continued to talk, trying to figure out their next move with the information they had.

* * *

Update: Friday (So, for some reason I may or may not put little skits at the end of these things just for kicks. If you don't like 'em, just tell me to stop while I'm ahead)

Ghost: *Sigh* Fanfiction just loves messing with me. Twice now I've posted stories at midnight and it insists that I post them the day before. It's a small thing, but it somewhat bugs me since my profile page has the accurate info and the story itself doesn't reflect that. Ah well, small potatoes.

Bass: You don't have any potatoes...

Ghost: *facepalms* I liked you better in BN2 when you were a fake Gospel. You were easier to ignore and much less annoying to me. Then Capcom just had to upgrade your buster and make you a nightmare in BN6.

Bass: You're not allowed to talk about my role in BN6.

Ghost: I've already deleted you in two stories. You can't boss me around, no matter how annoying you are. Anypanel, this part is over! Ghost501 logging out!


	5. Chapter 4

Don't sue me! Still getting used to these beforehand talks!

**Favoriters/Followers: MysteriousClue, ShadowDusk94, FeralBass, AsoenixKnight, terratasha, ydshahid**

**Review Responses:**

**True-inTha-Blue: **Thanks! Hopefully you'll like what comes today. Hehehehe...

**terratasha:** Yep and today's just going to add to the chaos! Hehe...

**ShadowDusk94: ** It's...oh forget it. I don't want to be nitpicky over stuff that doesn't really matter. Anypanel, yeah it figures that the dark character would be upset for getting shut down. Oh, and I hope you still have your flashlight, cause you're just beginning to go to the cave. Someone else is in trouble here. Hehehehe...

...I'm laughing a lot today...hmm...wonder if there is a Dark Ghost501 running around. While you read this, I'm going Net exploring.

* * *

**Day 2 Part 2 - Party At The Generator!**

"Stop please! You don't know what you're doing! You'll overload the generator with that much power!" a Mr. Program screamed as a yellow navi struck his arm into the ground. The panels crackled with electricity as the lighting in the network began to fizzle in and out.

The blue navi next to him smiled as he fired a light at the Mr. Program. The green program was knocked unconscious for a second before it got up and went off to go find some music data. Flashman didn't know why he had been reawakened, but he was happy that he had been given another chance. He had missed hypnotizing people. Sparkman, on the other hand, just seemed angry. He didn't particularly care to know why the navi seemed to look at the world like it had played some unfair joke on him. It didn't matter. The only thing that mattered was getting back at blue boy.

His reviver said that he would have a chance at finally getting his revenge upon Megaman and he was going to take it. He fired his own Spark Arm into the ground, causing the lights to go even crazier. This would get Megaman's attention. It had too. Otherwise, well, ACDC was going to be a little…powerless.

* * *

"Hey Mayl I think your light bulb is dying," Lan said as he noticed the bulb above their heads beginning to go in and out.

"Oh yeah, with everything going on I forgot to put the new one in." Mayl said as she went downstairs to grab the new ones from off the table. A few seconds after she left though, the light bulb grew extremely bright. The appliance suddenly popped loudly. Lan covered his head as the glass fell down on his head.

"Lan, everything okay?" Mayl called.

"I'm fine, but your light bulb just exploded."

"What?" the red haired girl said as she came back into the room with a light bulb in hand.

"Um Mayl, I don't think you're the only one having light problems." Roll pointed out. From her window, Lan and Mayl could see the lights in other houses growing increasingly bright. Within seconds, they began to explode. The sound of popping glass echoed around the whole community.

"Whoa, what's going on?" Lan asked aloud.

"I wonder if something's wrong with the generator for the town," Megaman suggested.

"What would that have to do with anything?" Mayl asked.

"Well, if someone overloaded the system, then the generator won't be able to control how much power is sent over the wires. When that happens, the power just surges uncontrollably." Roll explained.

"Wait, but wouldn't those surges cause appliances to stop working," Lan said.

"Yeah, some of them may be protected, but if this gets out of hand it might actually fry those surge protectors too!" Megaman realized. Someone was literally about to destroy every electronic device in ACDC!

"This is not good. Ah man, and no one knows where this generator is at?" Lan groaned.

"Actually someone might. Doesn't the man who lives right behind Dex's house work for the power company? He might know where it's at." Mayl quipped.

"Well, it's better than doing nothing." Lan raced down the stars with Mayl following close behind him. Lan couldn't help but smirk. A little over a year ago, he would have told Mayl to leave this to him. But then again, she had a track record of somehow following him into these situations anyway. The first time he had fought the World Three and Gospel, she had appeared along with his other friends to try and help. Now with her experience, she would be even harder to keep away from fights. However, he couldn't help but be glad for the extra help. Shaking away his thoughts, Lan exited the house and ran off.

* * *

Luckily the man was at the house and was actually about to inspect the generator himself. He had sent his navi to go ahead of him, but she returned minutes later badly injured. The navi never got a good look at who had attacked her; all she remembered was the sound of electricity crackling. The man brought them to the train station and showed them an extra back room. Lan had passed by this door several times in his life, but was just never curious enough to see just what was inside of it.

"Clever, they put the generator in the train station. Not my first place to look," Lan said.

"You can complement the ingenuous of it later, Lan." Mayl pulled out her PET.

"Jack in, Roll, Execute!"

"Jack in, Megaman, Execute!"

* * *

When both navis touched down, they couldn't help but be amazed at all the colors of the Generator Comp. Red, blue, green, purple. A lot of colors were accounted for. It was like one of those old disco parties. Even the panels were glowing different colors! The two navis soon found a Mr. Program who was merely dancing around in front of a purple barred door.

"Whoo! Party! Everyone, bust a move!" it yelled to no one in particular.

"Excuse me, Mr. Program?" Roll asked, unsure of just what was going on. She had seen her fair share of weird Mr. Programs, but this was kind of ridiculous.

"Whoa, who are you? Wanna dance?"

Roll skipped the comment, "What's wrong with this network?"

"Nothing is wrong with this network! We're having a parrr-taay! It's great! I know the DJ! You sure you don't what to dance?"

Roll sighed. Something was really wrong with this place, "Mega do you have any…Mega?"

"Something about this set up looks oddly familiar," Megaman mumbled as he walked over to a section of the cyber world. For a second, Roll thought that he too was going crazy. But as soon as the light turned orange, a green mystery data was visible. Megaman grabbed the data and analyzed it. In seconds he held the key data to unlock the door. As soon as Megaman put in the data, the lights stopped and the area returned to normal.

"Whoa…what happened to me? I…I don't remember anything," the Mr. Program said before falling over flat on its face.

"Is he going to be alright?" Roll asked, actually concerned.

"Ugghh…I see stars. Did anyone see that taxi? I think it dropped me off at the wrong place," it groaned.

"I think he'll be okay. Come on." Megaman said and he and Roll rushed into the next area.

* * *

After two areas and several partied out Mr. Programs later, Roll and Megaman finally reached the strange monster-like tile in front of the main computer. In front of it, stood a blue navi with a few light bulbs on him. However, the navi seemed to be broken down in some places. Several of his lights were either cracked or broken. It flashed a crocked smile at Megaman.

"Flashman?" Megaman said as they slowed to a halt. The navi didn't respond and it took Megaman seconds to figure out why. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw a long needle like appendage. He pushed Roll out of the way and jumped away, barely missing an attack from Sparkman. The yellow navi glared dangerously at the blue bomber. His eyes raged with blazing fire.

"Roll! Take care of Flashman! I've got Sparkman!"

"Got it!" the pink navi said before drawing her bow and firing.

"Lan!"

"Ready! Battle Routine, Set!"

"Execute!"

* * *

"Spark Bomb!" the navi yelled as he launched several yellow spheres at Megaman.

"Proto Cross! Bamboo Sword! Elec Sword!" Lan said as Megaman's bodysuit changed. He looked like his Proto Soul form. The green blade appeared in place of his hand as Megaman charged forward, zooming past all of the bombs and slashed.

Sparkman wobbled back after the red navi landed his attack. As he landed back on his feet, Megaman ran back at the navi. Sparkman growled as he saw the navi running at him.

"Spark Wave!" the navi yelled as more electricity surged through the ground.

Megaman stopped his advance and pulled out his shield. The attack collided with his guard and the force was knocked back at Sparkman. Sparkman braced himself and took the hit. As Megaman switched over to his Elec Sword, he felt a small tingle. In seconds, electricity from the panels shocked him and he fell to his knees.

"Megaman! What happened?" Lan asked.

"It must be the generator. It's over charged and now anything electric is paying for it." Megaman said.

"But what about Sparkman and Flashman?"

"They're Elec navis. They can take this kind of voltage." Megaman dropped his Elec Sword and started firing his buster. Before Lan could download another set of battle chips, a bright light encompassed the field. It faded quickly and when Megaman looked to see where it came from he noticed that Roll's bodysuit had changed colors. He only caught a glimpse of it, but he could have sworn it was yellow. Megaman had never seen that Merge before. However, a Spark Wave from Sparkman made him divert his attention back to the task at hand.

"Erase Cross! Lock Shot 2! Triple Download!" Lan yelled. Megaman's bodysuit changed once again into a purplish color with a white mane around him. Megaman's buster changed colors and was soon an army green color. The purple navi took aim and fired.

"Spark Bomb!" Sparkman said and launched several more bombs. The first two shots hit the bombs since they came out so rapidly; but before firing his last shot, Megaman changed tactics.

"Killer Death Beam!" Megaman fired a laser from his eyes and destroyed the remaining bombs. Not expecting a piercing attack, Sparkman was hit by the surprise attack. Fazed, he couldn't block the next shot. The navi groaned as the Lock Shot hit him. He needed to get out of here. Mortis would resurrect him and kill him again if he got deleted here.

"Dark Conductor!" he yelled. A dark shadow of Megaman appeared behind him and slashed, knocking the purple navi to his knees. As Megaman turned around to face his double, the shadow smirked at him and dissipated. When Megaman turned around to fight Sparkman again, the orange navi had already jacked out.

"What was that about? He starts a fight and then runs?" Lan pondered.

"I was thinking the same." Megaman agreed. Normally these navis fought to the end, especially since they all harbored grudges against him for deleting them in the first place. Come to think of it, Quickman had done the same thing once his life was on the line. But where would they have gone to? Before he could think more about the situation, Mayl brought the blue navi out of his thoughts.

"Roll, stop!" she yelled.

Megaman turned just in time to see Roll kick Flashman forward, "What's the matter, Flashy? Did I break a bulb?" The yellow navi walked menacingly towards the wounded blue one. Roll wore a creepy smile on her face. Was she actually enjoying this? Now that Megaman was actually looking at her, he could tell the design wasn't just yellow.

Roll's hair had gone back with a yellow bow scarf keeping it together. Her antennae had turned gray with streams of yellow data on them; she had a belt and two upper armbands reflecting the same design. Her helmet was yellow with a gray line running around it, with a 'v' in the middle and her visor had turned yellow. She now wore a vest with an lightning-like design and a yellow pair of compression shorts over her black bodysuit. Her hands were covered with dark gray gloves and she had leggings in a light gray color.

"Roll!" Megaman yelled, trying to call her off. She ignored him and continued forward as Flashman tried to get back up.

"Oh, don't get up. I've already got the next bright idea. Thunder Blast!" Instead of attacking, thunder sounded in the Net Area. Megaman was completely disoriented after hearing the noise. He hadn't been hurt, but the attack left him deaf and confused. As Megaman looked at the scene in front of him, he noticed Roll still advancing. Flashman seemed to be on his knees trying to figure out what had just happened; the blue navi looked incredibly worse for wear and looked like he would just fall to the ground deleted. Megaman's vision focused just in time. Roll had pulled out her bow once again and had it positioned right in front of the downed navi's face, "Goodbye!"

The moment she was about to fire, her world flipped. Megaman had tackled her to the ground. Seeing his chance, Flashman copied his comrade and jacked out. The minute he left, the lights in the area began to calm down and stuck to just one color. Megaman got off Roll and backed up. The yellow navi looked back at him, completely confused, "Oww….my head…" she groaned as she got back up to her feet.

"Roll, you okay?" he asked.

"I think. Ow…do navis get headaches, because I have a bad one," she groaned as he helped her back up.

"I don't think we do. Are you sure you're okay?"

"OW! Mayl, not so loud. That hurt!" Roll said as her operator's voice suddenly blasted though her communication channel.

"Oh sorry," Mayl apologized, quieter than her near frantic screaming, "Are you okay? I completely lost control of you for a while."

"I'm fine. Just a major headache," Roll said as cheerfully as she could. She walked over to the computer and turned off the system, "At least now the generator can be fixed. I wonder why those two even bothered trying to…Ow, ow, ow!"

"No wondering for you. Come on, let's just head back home." Megaman said, pulling her close. She seemed fine, but what could have happened to make Mayl lose control of her and her turn into…well…the complete opposite of her?

"Yeah. Maybe it's this Merge. But the others… never did that… before," she said tiredly.

"My dad's left on a trip to Netopia today but we can go to SciLab when he comes back next week to make sure you're okay. Right now though, you look like you about to drop." Lan said. The navi didn't responded seeing as she pretty much decided to curl up next to Megaman and nod off. The three smiled at Roll's antics and Lan and Mayl jacked them out.

* * *

"You two…did well!" Mortis said as Flashman and Sparkman returned, "But there is just one problem. You two were not on the list to begin with! Grave Stake!" Two spikey pillars came from under them and hit them right in their emblems. The navis were deleted within seconds, not that Mortis really cared. He had gotten what he wanted.

"Soon…darkness will rule over the Net. I just have to wait a little while longer," the navi said as he laughed to himself. Now, _this_ was going to be fun.

* * *

Update: Monday

Man...I forgot how much I LOVE writing dark characters. Makes me wonder why this is the first story I used them in in terms of Megaman. Hmm...time for some brain storming. Khehehehe...

...Alright, this is beginning to creep me out, what the? *looks on desk* Alright, whose bright idea was it to put a dark chip on my desk? Seriously, not funny guys! *flicks away into trash can* Though in all seriousness, dark characters are actually one of my favorite concepts to toy with. People who remembered some of my old PJO fanfictions before I became an exclusive MMBN writer know that dark characters really are some of my favorites to play around with. Surprisingly though, this is one of the first fics in which I didn't really have a problem with keeping the story T (normally I have a problem with keeping the darkness on a T level and not going the extra mile for an M.).

Anypanel, enough about my writing style. Time for a DN Quiz!

**DN Quiz**: What was Roll's original power system supposed to be? (She didn't always have Merges)

**Bonus**: In what story was Mortis's original debut in? (This is a bonus 'cause you really would have had to see my stories since my very beginning, so new comers may not get this) [Note: His name wasn't Mortis in this story]

Get the quiz right, Roll gives you a cookie. If anyone get's the bonus right, I'll release a preview of Day 4 after Day 3, those two are relatively short in terms of being broken in two or more parts...

Also, not that it has anything to do with this story, but once again I've missed typed. Really need to do final final checks on these ANs. Monday, I said that Stream isn't in DN. What I should have said is that he's not in DN _currently_. He's in the series, however his role is pretty minimal until we get to DNE (Double Network Epilogues-don't know how many I'm doing yet). So yes, Stream. EXE (my renamed Megaman Jr. from _The End of Net Society_) is canon the DN Series but _The End of Net Society_** is not DN canon.** Sorry for the confusion. Recently, I've been making a few errors in terms of typing and releasing information. Thankfully, those mistakes have been minimal.

Bass: Idiot.

Ghost: *glares* You know DN4 isn't finished yet...I can still get you deleted.

Bass: Then I'll come back. You do realize how many times Megaman has beaten me and I haven't died right?

Ghost: Yeah, well! Um...you look like a shark! Ghost501 logging out!

Bass: ...the hell?

* * *

_Later that day..._

**Official MM Double Network Contest:**

Ghost: Hey all, it's Ghost501 and I'm finally explaining the rules and stuff about this contest!

Bass: Took you long enough...

Ghost: Don't patronize me. Anyway, some of you know, Roll has a new power in the DN Series known as the Merge System. However, due to timing and just unimaginative thinking at the time, the system's outward appearance became much less...awesome. So, I've decided that the Merges need a new redesign otherwise we're just going to have recolored Rolls running around.

Bass: Yeah, so why aren't you redoing it?

Ghost: Because I'd rather give the audience a chance to make and give input. And don't question my methods. Anyway, the rules are as followed:

_1. Entries can be either artworks or written descriptions (I would prefer a drawing, but really cool descriptions will also work too.)_

_2. Entries must be a recreation of the following Merges: Pyra, Glacia, and Voltra._

_3. All Entries must be turned sent to me (please by PMs on FF unless you don't have a profile) by May 10th 12:00pm **EST**._

_ Artworks can be submitted to MCGhost501 on devianArt_

_ Descriptions can be submitted to Ghost501 on Fanfiction_

Ghost: And yeah, I believe that should be it. If you can't draw I understand (I know I can't!) but I would really appreciate it if you guys and gals entered something.

Bass: Plus, then he has to go back and change all the other DNs to fit your description. So...do it!

Ghost: *Sigh* You need to get out of the Undernet more often. I swear he's only this annoying when he comes into my studio... Maybe it's like a repression thing or something. Anyway, Ghost501 logging out for real this time! Good luck everyone!

* * *

Oh, and just in case anyone was wondering:

Pyra: Red: Blaze Circle (creates a ring of fire around Roll) [in game, this would be 1 tile around Roll lit up in flames]

Glacia: Ice/Sky Blue: Freeze Dome (an igloo is formed around Roll. Is weak against break element chips) [in game, Roll's tile would become ice and a dome surrounds her. Note, she cannot move while doing this attack(?).

Voltra: Yellow: Thunder Blast (thunder sounds the area and confuses all enemies. Sound blast also deafens navis and prevents them from using battle chips for a full four seconds) [in game, it would be like Blinder except with thunder instead of light]

And now! I log out for real!


	6. Chapter 5

**Followers: Gavzilla**

**Review Responses:**

**terratasha:** That is the mystery that everyone wants to know. Mortis is a really huge character in DN3 because a lot of the story has to do with him. And well, that's all I can say. I'll let you stew over what that actually means.

**True-inTha-Blue:** I get my move list from the Megaman Wikia. When I looked up Sparkman, there was a move listed a Dark Conductor. Seeing that this is Spiral Into Darkness, I thought it was appropriate to end the fight on that note. As you're about to see, that mystery is about to get a little bigger.

**AnimeGirl257:** Sorry bout that. My promotion of the contest on DA was up for a while and I forgot to change it. It now reflects all the rules in addition to my FF profile.

**ShadowDusk94:** No problem, you didn't upset me. And yeah, he won't listen. Bass's torment knows no bounds. *Ghost's take a deep breath* Why did you say it wasn't Style Change. Now, Roll can't give you a cookie. But since you were close, how 'bout half a cookie?

* * *

**Addition to Contest Rules:** _Each Merge is its own category, you can enter for as many as you wish. _(So, if you only want to do Pyra, that is allowed. It's just that you only will have one chance to win versus three)

* * *

**Quiz Answer:** Style Change - Originally Roll was supposed to have a style change ability and get several styles in DN1 being HeatBug, ElecShadow, and AquaShield, but this was later change to the Merge system (a similar system, but instead focuses on defensive rather than offensive) and she was given the Pyra and Glacia Merge in DN1 instead. She later gets the Voltra Merge in DN3. There is _at least one_ more unannounced Merge that she can get. The Merge System however, rewrote some of her battle function so she can no longer summon viruses nor do a Roll Dance (a move that would give her a few invincibility frames in the games).

**Bonus Answer:** I'm Sorry - The original version of _I'm Sorry_, which was my second Megaman BN/NT Warrior story on Fanfiction and is no longer available on the Internet unless someone retyped everything I wrote, had an antagonist named Graveman. EXE who was trying to get the three ultimate programs of Megaman, Protoman, and Bass. He then used the defeated navis to get the other programs (he actually used "Megaman" to defeat Protoman). He managed to get the program from Bass and delete Megaman and Protoman. Later, I reused his concept in the form one of the DNs antagonists, Mortis. EXE.

Congrats to terratasha for getting the bonus right! Bottom of the page has a preview to Day 4.

* * *

**Other notes:** So, I might as well address this since the contest is up. I have never given a physical description of Roll, Megaman, nor any other navi already seen in the BN Universe since they all look the same way in my head. Now, there NetOps may grow up but the navi's world doesn't necessarily. Everyone has kinda been the same way. Since I never established this beforehand, **if you've already started drawing do not change your design! I will accept them and it will not be disregarded because of it.** I respect everyone's artistic license and the Merge System didn't really have much for you all to go on, so it's really , I'll also take arguments as to why I should change the navis to be older and _may _consider doing so if I can be convinced (I'll make an announcement if I do). We'll see what happens. Anyway, just thought I mention that before any questions came up.

* * *

**Day 3 - Sister's Bad Side**

Roll groaned as her head continued to pound. After the fight with Flashman, she had managed to sleep it off. Over the past two days though, it had come again and this time as a persisting pain. The pink navi held her head as she just wished for the annoying pounding to go away. She did a double check to make sure the volume on Mayl's PET was off; no need to get her NetOp in trouble.

Roll soon heard the sound of someone jacking into her PET. The navi quickly took her hands of her head and tried to put on her best smile for the day. The headache had persisted into the night and had actually made it harder for her to go asleep. It also made her much more irritable than normal. The pink navi had been trying to keep a lid on her mouth all day; which wasn't that hard since not too many things annoyed her.

"Hey, Roll! What's up!" Saber said as he approached the pink navi. Earlier in the semester, Mayl and Saria had had the same World Literature class. However, Saria ended up having to switch out of the course due to a conflict in her schedule. Despite this, Saber normally jacked into her PET to say hi during this time. Over the past year, the two navis had formed something of a sister-brother bond since their NetOps were meeting up so much, despite Saber only becoming Saria's navi over the past couple of months-Jason had a habit of sending the blue navi to check on his daughter pretty often to make sure she was okay.

"Hi, Saber," Roll winced slightly at the sound of his voice. It was more because of the loudness of it than anything else, "Could you talk just a little quieter?"

"Oh sure. Sorry, you still having that headache?" the blue and green navi asked.

"Yeah. If this is what humans have to put up with, then I'm glad I'm a navi. This thing is so annoying." Roll groaned.

"I bet. Then again, I'm sure there are some other things you would want to deal with."

"You're probably right. So, how have you been?"

"Fine for the most part. Saria's still working hard as always; I swear that girl needs someone other than Mayl to put the brakes on her. She'll work herself to death if it was possible." Saber pinched the bridge of his nose.

"Oh, is Saber trying to play matchmaker?" the pink navi asked, genuinely smiling. It was amazing what being around your loved ones could do. Roll was already beginning to feel the pain beginning to lessen, which she was happy about. She made a mental note to self to find Megaman after this class was over since Mayl would still be busy.

"What? Me? You're kidding right? No, but you know. If you wouldn't mind I could um…" Saber paused. Navis didn't have chores and it was relatively easy to get money by virus busting, "I'll get you a new chip!"

"Saber, I'm not Mega," the navi said slyly.

Saber facepalmed himself. Of course, only Megaman could pull that one off, "Well…I…"

Roll tapped her foot, "It's not good to keep a girl waiting, Saber. Saria should've taught you that one."

"I know. Tox taught me that one," Saber said off-handedly. The navi paused a second as he realized what he just said. Like Saria, Tox hadn't been much of a talking point between Roll and Saber. He hadn't necessarily been the bullet, but he had been the gun involved in Tox's deletion.

"Really?" Roll said, her hand going up to her shoulder. Roll had always felt somewhat guilty over Tox's deletion. She hadn't been strong enough to stop Saria or Saber when they had been placed under the control of 'The Voice'. As a result, she had been a sitting duck in front of the angered Saria. She had used Saber's power to fire off his most devastating attack. She hadn't been able to defend herself from it, but Tox had. The purple navi had used herself as a shield to protect Roll, ultimately sacrificing herself.

But that wasn't the true source of Roll's guilt. No, that lied in one fact. She had broken a family. If she had only been strong enough to summon up one more Freeze Dome, she might have been able to save herself without Tox getting injured. Tox's wasn't only Saria original navi; she was also Saber's sister. Because of her own incompetence, she ripped apart this whole family. Sure, 'The Voice' had mind controlled Saria and a program caused Saber to be obedient to her, but it was still her fault. She was the one who wasn't strong enough.

"Roll?" the blue navi asked, putting his hand on her shoulders.

"I'm sorry. It was my fault," Roll said, turning her face away from him.

"Oh, not this again. I already told you that I don't blame you." On their first official meeting—and Saria and Mayl's too—after Saria was released, Roll had spent a good twenty minutes saying how sorry she was about Tox's deletion, "There was no way you could have stopped me or Saria. Not to brag or anything."

"But I…"

"Stop, from what you've told me of your little adventures, the navi you truly ever defeated when you started out was Solarman. Protoman left the fight early. You didn't have enough experience to possible fight me. Even with your merges, you still couldn't have hoped to win. You probably would have only been deleted. If it wasn't for you, we would all be zombie slaves to 'The Voice'.

"Tox saved you because she knew you knew what she couldn't. You're the only one who could have possible have saved Megaman and Lan and thus save the Net Society. If we lost you, it would have been game over for the rest of us."

"Mega would have…"

"Megaman would have lost it. I won't pretend to understand what you two have, but it's something that I don't think many navis understand. It's like you two actually understand what the word love means. Anyway, Megaman would have gone berserk and probably crashed or permanently reined in by Lan. Lan probably would have died if it wasn't for you and Mayl. Don't you see? We actually would have been in serious trouble if Tox hadn't died for you. So enough with the my fault thing. If it's because we don't talk about her a lot, we can talk about her until we run out of things to say about her."

"Saber…"

"I'm not going to stand here and say that I don't wish she was here. But I understand why she did it. And you know what, in some kind of sick-I-don't-know-why-way, I'm glad she did. At least I get to hang around you. Oh-hey!" the blue navi said in surprise as Roll hugged him tight. He returned the gesture; he really should have seen that one coming.

"Thank you…" she said.

"Please don't cry. If Saria sees this, I'll never hear the end of it. 'How could you make her cry! She's such a sweet navi! Go and apologize!' Blah, blah, blah."

Roll giggled as she wiped her eyes, "Thanks again. Though maybe I should just walk into your PET and start crying. Saria's nagging sounds amusing to watch."

"No! Don't you dare!" Saber said backing up, sort of shielding the way to the jack out link behind them.

Roll smirked as she looked like she was going to charge forward.

_g…g…i…m…e…c…l._

Roll's spun her head around. She could have sworn that she had heard something. She shook her head. Great, now she was hearing things. Next thing she would catch a human fever and have to go to a hospital. Why did Dr. Hikari chose this week to travel?

"You sure you're okay Roll?" Saber asked, concerned.

"Fine, just thought I heard something," Roll mumbled as she put a hand to her head; it was pounding.

"You sure those headaches aren't doing something extra to ya? Why don't you go to your creator? Oh, what's her name again? She might be able to fix you."

"Dr. Amaya? Unfortunately, she's sick with the flu. She said she'd rather not check my code while she's coughing up her lungs."

"Wow. Well there's another ugly human illness which you may or may not get."

"Don't even joke. I don't even have lungs."

"Really? Then why do you cough when there is smoke in the field."

"The same reason you do. We're programmed to do that! It's not like it actually affects our ability to breathe. We don't have lungs!"

"You already said that," Saber said, leaning back a bit like he knows he already won.

"Repetition for emphasis!" she countered, arms crossed.

"I think you just forgot whatever you were going to say and just filled in words to make up for it."

"Wha! How dare you….you…!" Roll said, puffing up her cheeks.

"There you go again. Trying to stall time for yourself," Saber said, poking Roll on her nose. The navi looked back at her as he removed his finger, smirking.

Roll's eyes flashed dangerously at him, "You do know you just declared war, right?"

"Wha, me? Declaring a tag war on the reigning champ? Or wait, the reigning champ is me." Saber said, his back foot getting ready to push him away at a second's notice. Oh the small prices to pay for being Roll's brother.

"That was a fluke and you know it! It's only because Mega distracted me!"

"Oh yes, your boyfriend was extremely helpful in making sure that you were properly _taken_ care of."

Roll's eyes widened, "You didn't."

"What? The battle chip bribe doesn't work on you. Had to give my Guardian copy to somebody and he and Lan needed it for a chip trade."

"Mega's so going to get it when I get home," Roll said, making yet another note to self.

"Yes, well it was nice talking to you, but I believe that Saria's class should be getting out soon. Have fun, listening to stories about Gilgamesh!"

"Oh no, you don't," Roll grabbed his arm. "You going to finish what you started."

"I am?"

"Yep, because…first one to get tagged five times wins. Tag!" she quickly jabbed him in his arm and ran off.

"Wait! You've already been tagged, which means I've already got a point!"

"Nope!" Roll said, already a good few yards away, "We hadn't started yet!"

"Oh…hey! Get back here!" Saber said running after her.

* * *

The game had lasted for a full twenty minutes. Mayl wasn't really surprised to see Saria standing outside the door of the classroom with Lan, after all this happened maybe about one a week. She gave both individuals a hug before turning to Saria.

"I'm guessing that Saber hasn't come back to his PET," Mayl guessed.

"You would be correct," Saria responded.

Lan pulled out his PET, "Megaman could you break up the game between Roll and Saber?"

"I thought it was Mayl's turn?" Megaman asked.

"Nope, I did it last time. Your turn," Mayl said.

"Alright, be right back."

* * *

"Alright break it up you…mphh," a quick kiss from Roll shut Megaman up in a matter of seconds. The blue bomber was then spun around by Saber. Completely disoriented, Megaman lost his footing and landed on the ground. When he finally got his bearings, he saw his girlfriend sitting right next to him with a smile.

"Roll, what are you…"

"Tag! You're it!"

"Oh really?"

"Yeah, you…MEGA!" she laughed as he tackled her, not that they fell a very far distance since they were already on the ground anyway.

"Okay, I didn't sign up for this. Saria, please get me out of her before they start making out or something. I don't think my stomach can take this."

"Saber!" Saria's face appeared on a screen next to him, "I think it's cute."

"You're not the only one," Mayl said agreeing.

"I'm actually siding with Saber on this one. This is sickeningly adorable," Lan countered.

"Oh, like you two are ones to talk. Or should tell everyone about your little movie date on the couch last week!" Roll said with a smirk.

"ROLL!" Mayl's face went red from embarrassment of the untold.

"What?" Roll smirked. Despite her cute appearance, she could pull off sneaky and coy when she wanted to. Mayl hung her head in defeat.

"Fine. We'll lay off…" The red head sighed.

"Good, now everyone get out of this PET!" Roll said. However a second after she said it, an email came through. As Roll opened it, she felt her headache return full force, "Wait! Mayl, Saria, Lan. You guys have to jack us into the school network, now!"

"Why?" Saria asked.

"Oh my…guys someone's threatening too…" Mayl didn't get a chance to speak before they noticed that the ground was beginning to shake. However the shaking stopped in a few minutes.

"Mayl, what's going on?" Lan asked.

"Whoever sent this email wants to fight all three of us in University Comp 2. If we don't get there in ten minutes, they will overrun the school with plants."

"What! That's ridiculous!" Saber said, "How the heck could anyone do that?"

"Plantman could. Pretty easily too. I don't know who the other two challengers could be, but if Plantman is back then we need to go now," Megaman said, helping Roll up.

"Well, that takes care of that. Come on!" Lan said, already making his way down the hall.

* * *

It had been weird getting through the University Comp. All the security gates had been deactivated. All the three had to do was walk through. Some part of it felt like a trap, but what choice did they have? When the three navis walked into University Comp 2, the feeling they all had was only confirmed.

Sand surrounded Saber and dragged him into University Comp 3. A plant vine grabbed Megaman around the ankles and threw him black into Comp 1. Before Roll could even react to either situation, the gates activated, preventing her from getting to either Mega or Saber.

"Napalm Bomb!" Roll narrowly managed to jump out of the way as three bombs flew in the air and set the floor alight.

"Who the heck are you?" Roll asked as she stared at the purple navi with cannons for hands. Like Diveman and Blastman, this navi wasn't interested in talking. Unfortunately, it seemed particularly interested in trying to delete her, "Shoot! Mayl!"

"Got it! Battle Routine, Set!"

"Execute!"

* * *

"Roll Arrow!" Roll said as she drew her bow and fired.

"Vulcan Gun!" the navi responded and shot down every attempt she made.

Roll gulped. Well, there went her main weapon of choice, "Mayl! We're going to need a different strategy!"

"Got it! Lock Shot 1!" Roll's bow changed into an army green buster. She tapped on her helmet, thus bringing down her visor. She locked on and fired.

"Napalm Bomb!" the bomb arc upward, clearly missing the attack. Before Roll could question it, the navi raised his cannon and fired a round. Although he was hit by the Lock Shot, his attack did much more damage. The hot material fell around down on Roll as the bomb exploded in midair.

"AHH!" Roll yelled.

"Roll! Aqua Aura! Aqua Blade! Glacia Merge!" Roll's body was surrounded by a blue aura as the Glacia Merge took hold. The barrier wouldn't probably survive too many attacks, but it would spare her some time. The blue navi drew the sword and charged.

"Napalm Bomb! Vulcan Gun!" the purple navi used his combo once again. At first, she thought she could make it through, but the aura fell just a second to earlier. As Roll stopped as she was once again nailed by the hot remains. As she looked back up at the navi, he had his cannon trained on her, "Vulcan Gun!"

The navi flew back as she was intercepted by the attack. Roll groaned as she got back up. She couldn't get close to this guy. Ever attack she had, he either stopped her or found a way to retaliate. Then she heard him. Saber. She hadn't known what had happened, but he didn't sound happy. He sounded hurt. The purple navi blocked her way from helping her brother.

"Roll? Roll what's wrong?" Mayl asked, but Roll wasn't listening anymore.

The navi slowly got back up to her feet. When she stared back at her opponent, her green eyes were a few shades darker than normal. Roll walked up to the navi, who for some reason stopped shooting. Maybe because deep on the inside, he was scared of this new Roll.

"One chance. Out. Of. My. Way." She said coldly.

The navi merely raised his cannon. Very well then, "Aqua Needle!" she fired from a buster.

The navi sputtered as bubbles exploded all around him as the needles made an impact. The blue navi ran up and kicked him right in the center of his chest. The attacked navi flew backwards, landing in the gate put up by Desertman.

Roll cracked her knuckles and walked menacingly towards the navi in front of here, "You sure you don't want to get out of my way? I won't tell anyone you got beat up by a girl." The navi started to get back up, though it seemed difficult for him after that attack, "Fine. Aqua Needle!" she fired again. The navi dropped back to the ground as the bubbles surrounded him, "Don't make me ask a third time…" She placed her buster right in front of the purple navi.

"You asked for it..." Roll sideswiped the damaged navi with her foot and the purple navi landed on the ground, "Say good night! Roll Arr...!"

"ROLL!" her head turned as she tracked the voice. It was Saber. Upon seeing Saber, Roll's eyes began to lighten again. The purple navi took this as a cue to jack out or face the navi's wrath. She blinked a couple times and shook her head.

"What was that about?" he exclaimed.

"What do you mean?" she asked.

"ROLL!" Mayl's voice boomed in her ear.

"OW! Mayl! I still have a headache!" she said holding her head.

"Sorry! What happened to you?" her NetOp asked concernedly.

"I don't know! I just…I don't know." the light blue navi said.

"Sick or not, I think Dr. Amaya needs to look at you. Now," Saber said to his sister.

"I think he's right," a voice to the left of her said.

"MEGA! You're alright!" she said as she ran over and hugged him.

"Yeah, I'm alright," he stated, "But Saber is right. This is the second time this has happened to you. I think you need to go see Dr. Itumi, sooner rather than later."

"We'll head over now if you're up to it, Roll," her NetOp said.

"Yeah, I guess we should. I'll see you both later," Roll said as Mayl jacked her out.

"What do you think of it, Megaman?" Saber asked.

Megaman crossed his arms, "I don't know what to think of it. I'll probably have a different answer later on. I need a little time to think. Anyway, it's been a long day. You should head home."

"Right. Let me know how she is when she comes back home."

"You'll know when I do." He nodded as the two navis jacked out completely unaware of a fourth navi in the area. Mortis smirked off in the distance. Nice. Everything was going to plan. Soon, it would all be ready.

* * *

Update: Monday

Bass: That's ominous.

Ghost: Yes, so now Roll is recalling chips by herself. Hmm...remind you of anyone else with this problem?

Bass: So, when are you going to let everyone else in on the little secret?

Ghost: What? That Day 4 will be graced with Dark Hub's presence.

Bass: No, I'm talking about...

Ghost: Shut your mouth! You can annoy me, but I won't let you ruin the surprise for the audience!

Bass: What? I was just going to say that Mortis...! *Bass gets knocked out by a Meta Gel that fell from the heavens*

Ghost: And that's why you don't mess with Ghost. Ghost501 logging out!

(Same rules as last time. Get the DN question right, get a cookie. Get the bonus right, I give you all a preview)

**DN Quiz:** Does Hub have any kind of remnants of his human life still within him other than his soul that he is affected by? [Note: Check DN2 and DNB: THHF]

**Bonus Question:** What DNB title was removed from the initial list during the time of DN1. [Note: There were three DNBs, _You're Not Alone, You Knew_, and ()] The one that is in parenthesis gets Gav quite upset in the DN1 ANs.

* * *

By the way, I'm thinking maybe I'll take down the forum. I've been looking at the traffic stats and no one is looking at it. You guys think I should keep it up or should I just do a challenge thing on my own profile? Poll is on my profile.

* * *

Mayl said as she dashed out of the door, leaving Megaman alone to his thoguhts. Battle lockouts and hearing voices.

'_**Sounds kinda familiar…doesn't it Hub?**_'

'_Shut up!'_ he thought back at Dark Hub, the navi...or dark soul, whatever, had stayed mostly quiet with the exception of his dreams-Roll wasn't the only one who needed to go see his father. But the more he thought about it, the more sense it made...except for one key point. Roll had never been exposed to the darkness once before. Her data had never been tainted by a dark chip. No one had ever seen a dark chip in years. So, how could Roll be infected with darkness? He had destroyed it all when he defeated Nebula Gray.

'_**Missed a spot.**_' Dark Hub laughed to himself, '_**Oh, don't be upset my poor misguided half. We all can't be perfect. But hey, I'll cut you a deal. You let me out, and I'll make sure Roll never gets hurt again! That's sounds good right? Maybe when she turns, we go on a little rampage through the Net. That sounds romantic right?**_'

'_Not even in the slightest. Tell you what; I'll cut you a deal. Get out of my life and I won't have my dad rip you out._'

'_**What's this? Escalation? And so quickly! Why, Hub! I'm already making an impression on you! Maybe I'll be able to stop tormenting you sooner than I thought!**_'

'_Listen you little psychopath. You're not making any kind of "impression" on me. I'm just tired of you giving me dreams I'd rather not have._'

'_**But Hub…how can I make an impression, if I was already was already you. I'm not making an impression on you. You're making an impression on yourself!**_'


	7. Chapter 6

**Followers: **Spy of Influence, davidthefrogman

**Favoriters: **ryubimaru

**Review Responses:**

**True-inTha-Blue:** Well, wait no more! It's here! Sadly, this is baby steps. I'm afraid that no DN including this one has topped the Day 10 length that DN1 set forth. I always meant to push it, but when I started grouping the days together some things just worked better with other events and so this happened. We're about half way in terms of days but still more chapters. I'm trying to work on this for later DNs and other projects afterward so that I get longer projects (the DNs are really only around 40k-42k words I think. ANs lengthen the word count and make it seem bigger than what it is).

**ShadowDusk94:** Congrats on the unintentional SA2/Crush40 reference. I approve. Yeah, she just a _little_ sick. Maybe she's doing better today (...unlikely).

* * *

**DN Quiz Answer: **Yes - Within Megaman's code, Hub still has some ties to his human life. This can be thought about two ways, the one in which he still has a human soul and the one in which he has occasionally losses of breath whenever he thinks about his time as a small baby. This is due to a piece of Hub's DNA that is grafted deeper in his core than the rest. This graft also caused his eye color to be permanently green even after Hub. BAT was used. (Confused? Read _The Hub Hikari File _and DN2)

Congrats to ShadowDusk94 for getting this right.

**Bonus: **_I'm Tired_ - _I'm Tired_ was supposed to be a DNB a little after _You're Not Alone_. It was never released on the account of multiple characterization errors and it just being all bad. Be glad you all don't have to read/see it.

* * *

**Profile Poll Reminder:** The fate of the MMBN/MMSF forum lies in everyone else's hands but mine. Don't forget to vote to see if I should keep up Transcode, Ideas, Execute or if I should take it down.

* * *

**Contest Submission Date Reminder:** May 10th 12:00am (midnight) (Your submission only counts if I get it. So how ever it gets to me, make sure you get a confirmation message from me saying that I've recorded and seen it. If I don't, you can assume that I don't know that it physically exists.)

* * *

**Day 4 - I See A Pink Navi And I Want It Painted Black**

Megaman snapped awake for the fifth time this week. It happened again! He didn't understand, he hadn't even heard Dark Hub while he was fighting Plantman two days ago! Yet, he still continued to torment him in his sleep. The blue bomber got up and woke up his brother; today was a light day in terms of Lan's schedule. He only had two classes to go to today. Still, it wasn't too much fun for the brunette to wake up for two classes, take the train to DenTech University, and head back home. Especially because the two classes were early morning classes.

After freshman year, Lan decided to stay at home rather than on campus. The food, like in many college cafes, wasn't that great and he found himself just a bit homesick despite only being a train stop away. He never really understood it; but his parents never minded when he moved back in.

"Megaman…I don't have any classes today remember?" Lan mumbled, as he turned back over in his bed. Even at nineteen, the boy still hadn't forgotten the joys of sleeping in.

"Oh yeah, right…Sorry about that. Force of habit," One of the professors had canceled her class today while the other actually sent an email out last night saying that he was sick and wouldn't be coming into class.

"No prob," he brother said groggily and so he was out like a light once again.

"Well, I'm heading out! See ya later!" Megaman said. He knew there was no reason to go back to sleep. Plus, that would mean he would have most of the morning to himself for a change. The blue navi quickly jacked out into the Net and made his way over to Roll's.

* * *

Roll was still checking over her code as Megaman jacked in; Mayl had a few early classes herself and would normally leave together with Lan. Dr. Itumi had cleared the pink navi of anything being wrong, but also confessed that she could be missing something. The flu and computer coding weren't the best things to mix. She told the two to come back next week when she was, hopefully, feeling better. Since then, Roll had been frantically looking over her own code trying to find errors.

"You've got to stop freaking out about it," Megaman said as the pink navi jumped about two feet.

"MEGA! Don't scare me!" she had been so engrossed in her own work; she hadn't even heard him jack in.

"Sorry about that. Thought you heard me come in. Anyway, you know you'll only be able to see if they're bugs in the coding, not errors right?" Navis weren't built in order to be able to scan themselves with a fine tooth comb. To discover any human made errors, you would actually need a _human_ to go through the code and discover it. Navis could only see if they had any bugs, "You've been looking over the same piece of code since yesterday morning."

"Well, let me take a look then. You look like you're about to drop. Have you even slept?"

The pink navi actually felt a lot worse than she was showing. The only difference you could really see in her were faint rings under her eyes and her shoulders dropped a lot lower than normally, "No…something's wrong with my shut down sequence. I know there is…it's just that I don't know what it is." She sighed as she walked into Megaman's open arms.

The blue navi put his hand over her emblem and closed his eyes, "Well, there doesn't seem to be anything wrong with you," he said to the drowsy navi.

"But there is. Every time I try to go to sleep, I…oh forget it. I'm probably going crazy or something."

"You're not going crazy. You probably got introduced to some new data somewhere. You or Mayl downloaded anything recently?"

"Not that I remember. Then again," she yawned, "My memory isn't being the most helpful thing on the planet either. Apparently, several parts are fragmented. Not enough to actually do anything, but it's there."

"Why don't you try going back to sleep?"

"But…"

"I'll be right here, promise," he said sitting down.

Not seeing much of a reason to argue, the pink navi sat down with him and curled up. Megaman laughed when his girlfriend went to sleep in under five seconds. When he went into her programming, he noted that she actually hadn't shut down in two days. For a navi, it was a terrible thing not being able to shut down. Like humans, navis needed to shut down like they needed sleep. If they didn't, well…anything could happen.

"She tell you the same thing?" Mayl asked as she walked up to the computer.

"Tell me what? Not being able to shut down?" Megaman asked, a little surprised to see Mayl. Come to think of it, he hadn't seen her when he had jacked in.

"Not just that. She thinks she's hearing someone. The problem is that she can't make out what in the world the person is saying."

"Hmm," Megaman thought, "she didn't tell me that part. Though I think she was trying to."

"Oh, sorry. I thought she would have told you; she's always more comfortable around you. Even I had trouble getting that out of her. I just," the red haired girl put a hand up to her forehead, "I'm worried about her, Megaman. She thinks something is wrong with her but your dad's out of town and Dr. Itumi's too sick to see if anything's wrong. And with her being unable to shutdown now...," Mayl said, a few unwanted tears tried to make their way out of her eyes.

"What's been going on? You knew, besides the shutdown confusion?"

"Nothing much else, except for that weird lockout."

"Lockout?"

"Yeah. It's only happened twice. Once when we were fighting Flashman and then two days ago when we were fighting that other navi. What did you say his name was again?"

"Napalmman. That's weird," Megaman titled his head down to look at the sleeping navi.

"Yeah, I just wish there was some way I could help her," Mayl said as she turned her head to the clock, "Shoot! I'm going to be late! You wouldn't mind watching Roll for me would you? I'd hate to wake her up. She looked so tired this morning; she probably stayed up all night."

"No problem. Lan's classes are canceled for the day anyway."

"Perfect! Thanks, Megaman! See you later," Mayl said as she dashed out of the door, leaving Megaman alone to his thoughts. Battle lockouts and hearing voices.

'_**Sounds kinda familiar…doesn't it Hub?**_'

'_Shut up!'_ he thought back at Dark Hub, the navi...or dark soul, whatever, had stayed mostly quiet with the exception of his dreams-Roll wasn't the only one who needed to go see his father. But the more he thought about it, the more sense it made...except for one key point. Roll had never been exposed to the darkness once before. Her data had never been tainted by a dark chip. No one had ever seen a dark chip in years. So, how could Roll be infected with darkness? He had destroyed it all when he defeated Nebula Gray.

'_**Missed a spot.**_' Dark Hub laughed to himself, '_**Oh, don't be upset my poor misguided half. We all can't be perfect. But hey, I'll cut you a deal. You let me out, and I'll make sure Roll never gets hurt again! That's sounds good right? Maybe when she turns, we go on a little rampage through the Net. That sounds romantic right?**_'

'_Not even in the slightest. Tell you what; I'll cut you a deal. Get out of my life and I won't have my dad rip you out._'

'_**What's this? Escalation? And so quickly! Why, Hub! I'm already making an impression on you! Maybe I'll be able to stop tormenting you sooner than I thought!**_'

'_Listen you little psychopath. You're not making any kind of "impression" on me. I'm just tired of you giving me dreams I'd rather not have._'

'_**But Hub…how can I make an impression, if I was already was already you. I'm not making an impression on you. You're making an impression on yourself!**_'

Before the blue navi could make another retort, he felt Roll starting to shift. Refusing to respond back to his dark soul, the navi shifted his attention to his sleeping girlfriend. Her face was creased as if she was scared of something.

Roll mumbled something, but he couldn't make it out. As he brought his face closer to hers, she started to become clearer, "Leave…me…alone."

Megaman brought back his face as he tried to process what he had heard. Why would Roll be talking in her sleep? Navis didn't do that. Not unless they could dream anyway? Megaman's eyes widened. No…that wasn't possible. He quickly hovered his hand over her emblem and closed his eyes. Something was writing something in her code. No, writing and deleting what it had written. No one wonder Roll couldn't find anything. Whatever was happening to her was removing the occurrence just as fast as it was happening. Suddenly, all the code vanished and Roll snapped awake, breathing hard.

She whirled her head a couple times and on the second go around, noticed Megaman. She gripped onto the blue navi quickly, enveloping him in a death hug.

"Roll, it's okay. You're okay. It was just a nightmare," he said, not believing what he was saying. No, this didn't make any sense. She had to have a virus of some kind. She couldn't have any darkness in her. She had never been exposed to it. It had never breached her system. No, it had to be anything else but that.

"Now you know why I didn't go to sleep," she said into his chest as she finally managed to control herself.

"Yeah, I get it now. I'm sorry, Roll," he said rubbing her back.

"What's wrong with me, Hub?"

"I don't know, Roll," he said as he held the frightened navi. It was a long moment before he spoke again, "What was it about?"

Roll looked down for a moment. For a second, she looked like she was going to say something, but seemed to decide not to, "It was nothing. "

"Roll, that wasn't nothing," Megaman said, trying to understand. Roll seemed to tense up, "It's nothing if I say it's nothing. That's the way we do things. Isn't Mega?"

"Wha? What are you talking about?" Looking back at her, he noticed her eyes seemed to darken just a bit.

"Oh, how about every time I ask you about your little nightmares? 'It's just a bug.' or 'It's nothing.' If you can do it, why can't I?" Roll said, scooting away and crossing her arms across her chest.

"That's because," Megaman started before _someone else_ butted in. _'__**What's the matter? Your little girlfriend doesn't seem to happy about not knowing all of you. You know, this is the perfect time to introduce me. We'd probably hit it**_** off. _Or you know, she'll be terrified of you for the rest of her life. Huh...kinda sucks to be you doesn't it?_**'

_'STAY OUT OF THIS!'_ Megaman blew a breath before turning back to Roll. Well, this was a lovely time bomb, "Look, Roll. I..."

"Just stay quiet, Hub," Roll said. Megaman could have sworn that her normal bright green eyes were now more of a forest green now.

"If you give me a moment, then I can..." Megaman didn't know what the heck happened after Roll pounced on him. All, he did know was now he was being held down by a Roll who seemed a lot stronger than normal.

"Save. The. Crap." the pink navi said lowly. _'**Whoa...Did she just shut you up?...I see why you're attracted to**** her.**_' Hub really didn't have time to deal with this guy right now. Especially, since he could feel Roll's hand over his emblem, "Well...since you want to lie to me, I'm just going to have to figure it out the hard way. Aren't I?" Megaman felt a creepy cold feeling come over him as Roll started accessing his data. Normally, navis could do a overview scan, but it was a lot...weirder to do an actual file search in one. Actually, it was a really terrible idea since navis really couldn't program each other and a forced entry might cause damage to another's code if one wasn't careful.

Megaman tried to push against the navi; his coding had already been hard enough to code. Love or not, with the way Roll was acting, she had a _high_ possibility of hurting him, "Roll!" he said, trying to grab the navi's attention. However, she seemed much to interested in trying to access his memory files. There was also the fact that she wasn't the only one taking advantage of his incapacity at the moment.

_'**Well...hate to do this to such a pretty navi; but if she messes you up, she messes me up. Plus, this does give me the opportunity to get back at her for sending me to the back of your head for a while. Oh, and just so you don't make anything out of this, this is more for me than for**_** _you._**_'_

BOOM!

The Dark Bomb blast had managed to knock both navis back several feet. Megaman groaned as he got back up to his feet. _'**Shame the blast actually couldn't knock you out. That would've been helpful...**'_

_'She better be alive.'_

_'__**Of course, she's still alive. W**_**hy would I want to invoke the wrath of your constant nagging?**'**  
**

_"_Ugghh..." Roll groaned. Megaman walked over to her cautiously. The pink navi's bright green eyes flutter for a moment before she looked up to Megaman. However, one look and she jumped back, "No..."

"Roll, I'm fi-"

"Get away from me!" she jumped up to her feet and tried to make a break for it. Megaman, though, had been expecting her to make a run for it and grabbed her wrist. "NO!" she yelled, trying to pull herself free. She could've hurt him. Disabled him. Hell, she could've somehow deleted him by accident!

"Roll, please," he said pulling her towards him. The girl navi struggled against him, trying to get herself away from him, but Megaman wouldn't let go.

Finally, Roll stopped squirming, "I'm sorry." she repeated over and over again, crying into him. She didn't know what had happened. She had just lost control of herself. She couldn't stop. She had wanted to go into his files without his permission. She had no right to be so close to him. No...not even a right. She shouldn't be anywhere near him. Near anyone. The pink navi didn't want to go back to sleep. Not if this was how she woke up. The problem was that she could already feel the exhaustion creeping back into her system. Whatever had happened to her had taken a lot out of her. This tiredness was infective. Maybe just a few...

Roll shook her head. No, she couldn't go back to sleep. Even if she got bugged for it, she wouldn't go back.

"Roll?" Megaman asked. However, his voice was a lot different now. Much more far away.

_'**Back...to...sleep.**' _ a voice said in her head and sure enough, Roll was back in a deep sleep in less than ten seconds.

* * *

The ground rumbled in Sky Town once again. Official navis readied themselves. The only problem was that they couldn't see the attack coming. Holes opened up underneath them and a single attack ransacked them. As they fell to the ground, they fell down with glowing bodies. Their code suddenly riddled with powerful bugs. The attacker opened up another hole and threw the navis in it. Drillman smirked. More navis. He needed more navis. He scanned the area for more. Sky Area had recently become a recent hot spot for people. The town had added an additional section for people to explore, Sky Mall. So many navis wandered into the Undernet, eager to return back home to tell the world, "I survived the Undernet!". They never did.

Drillman stared back at the entrance to the Undernet. Master had told him that they were almost done. In fact, he needed to head to the Underground Network right now. Master had requested to speak to him.

As the drill-like navi entered in the Underground Network, he couldn't help but feel like something was amiss. He looked around for his Master. He would explain things. He would tell him just what was going on. He suddenly turned his head when the heard the sound of clapping and someone approaching.

"Well done, Drillman! I have enough navis now, but the thing is that…" Mortis snapped his fingers, "I no longer need you. Would you be so kind as the remove our kind friend?" The chained navi asked as Drillman felt something slash across his chest.

Before the navi could go back into a drill, the navi was surrounded by flames. The navi flew backwards into the fire. He was disoriented as more slashes raked him with unseen speed. Who was this navi? Quickman? But he couldn't breathe fire. Plus, he had been deleted. No navi moved this fast and had such versatility. Not even Megaman. As his vision cleared, Drillman gasped as the navi went for the kill. His delete was someone a little taller than Megaman, but with green armor and the head of a wolf. He reminded Drillman of the legendary Cybeast, Gregar.

"Good job, Gregar Beast. His poor body was going to be overrun by bugs anyway. That modification to his drills was a little too much for the poor boy." The Beast Out navi looked at the deleted data in front of him. He held out his palm and the data converted into bugs. Mortis smirked, "I have more where that came from, beast. Just ventured into Underground 2. I'm sure you will be pleased."

The navi fled to the promised meal. Mortis laughed to himself, when he resurrected the GBeast navi he was sure that something worse would have happened. The navi didn't even attack him. He had been so weak without his bugs, plus the ferocity of the original beast had been placented. Maybe because Gregar was no longer here. Ah well, Megaman's Beast Out battle data had still existed in the Underground. It would just have to…

"RAAAAAAR!"

Perfect. Mortis quickly moved to the Underground Area 2. He stood a good distance away, knowing what would happen. Gregar and Gospel had been made by accumulation of bugs. The only difference was that Gregar had been made naturally. Mortis chuckled. All he had to do was speed up the process.

The Beast Out Megaman slashed the ground as his "paw" began to grow. So many bugs. He wanted more. He held out his palm again and converted the last of the bugged navis into bug frags. It wasn't enough! The navi jammed his hand into the ground and the very floor that he was standing on converted into his food. Mortis retreated back into the beginning of Underground 2. Unbelievable. He thought the navis would have been enough. No, Gregar wanted the whole Net Area!

"RAAAAAAAR! RAAAAAAARR!" The navi said, his roars sounding more and more animal like by the second. In mere moments, on the bugged pedestal—or what was left of it—the Cybeast Gregar roared. He was reborn!

"Time for the final curtain call," Mortis breathed. "Graveyard Chains! Grave Stake!"

Chains wrapped around the cybeast. As it tried to shake them off, more chains appeared and started to drag him to the ground. Gray, purplish spikes appeared from the ground and stabbed into Gregar. The Cybeast tried to get back up. Its paws hitting the ground and causing rocks to fall. This power was incredible. Mortis couldn't wait to use it. The navi clenched his fists, "Death Panel!"

The panels still left converted into red poison panels. As Gregar stayed on them, his power began to diminish. The beast breathed fire and lighting, trying desperately to get out of its trap. But Mortis kept his offensive. In minutes, it was done. Gregar collapsed to the ground. His own data beginning to come apart. Mortis hovered over to the digitized animal and smirked as he got his result. When Gregar's deletion was done, all that was left was a single chip. Mortis picked up the chip and laughed, his work was done. As he prepared to left, he faltered. Fighting wasn't really his forte and the whole event had left him drained. Ah well, soon he wouldn't be the one fighting to plunge the Net into eternal darkness.

Mortis smirked as he turned back to the empty place behind him and jacked out.

* * *

"She did what?" Mayl said as she walked back into her room.

"She freaked out and lost control of herself," Megaman said, putting it extremely mildly. He hadn't really wanted to go into the part where she tried to access his memory, "She's been asleep for the past three hours, but you might want to put her in sleep mode until tomorrow morning when my dad comes back."

"Right," Mayl said as she did what the blue navi had suggested. The young woman sighed as she put the PET next to the computer, "I hope this is just some kind of bug."

"With the way Roll's been checking her code, she would have found it if it was a bug. Are you guys sure you haven't downloaded any weird data at all?" Megaman asked again.

"No! We haven't done anything out of the norm," Mayl said, frustrated. Her eyes flashed back to her sleeping best friend. _'Please be okay, Roll. We've been through too much for me to lose you now.'_ she thought as she looked back at the concerned blue navi, "I'll come by tomorrow after you guys wake up. Roll shouldn't be waking up until the sleep mode is taken off.

Megaman nodded and looked back at the pink navi. He kissed her pink helmet before walking back to his PC. For a change, he really wouldn't have minded Dark Hub chiming in. But then again, maybe that's why the dark soul wasn't. It was too much fun watching his lighter half muddle through the situation without any notion of what was going on. Of course, he didn't know either...but it was fun to pretend that he did.

* * *

Update: Monday

Ghost: Before anyone asks about the whole checking code thing, let me explain. There are two types of errors in computer programming: syntax errors and logic errors. Syntax errors are when the computer's language isn't properly translated, like making a word holder hold a number instead of a word. Logic errors are when the programmer has made a mistake. Computers can only do what they're told. In this case, navis can only see the syntax errors and not the logic errors. (If anyone wants me to clarify on this just let me know.) BAM! Who said you can't learn anything in a fanfiction!

Bass: I did. You really can't.

Ghost: You just hate fun don't you?

Bass: I think destroying humanity is fun.

Ghost: *facepalms* Gosh, darn it Bass. I don't have the energy to deal with you right now. One more chance to get a cookie from Roll. What song did I reference in the title of this chapter. Ghost501 logging out.


	8. Chapter 7

**Followers: **Le Chasseur, angryzor

**Favoriters: **angryzor

**Review Responses:**

**ShadowDusk94: **Yahoo! Someone listen to rock! Anyway, yeah you got it right so Roll will come by with a cookie. Speaking of her, let's see what's going on in that little head of hers.

**davidthefrogman: **Well, I'm glad you like it. Don't count out some people yet, since there are actually a couple of BN writers still present in the community. I'm just a frequent poster because unlike the general population on Fanfiction, my stories are completely written by the time I post them. So I update more frequently, but I have shorter project times than most other people (and if it wasn't for the fact that I have DN more or less planned out entirely in my head, there would be longer pauses between me publishing a story since I'm typically a one/two-shot guy. Trying to break that trend and dive into longer projects, but we'll see what happens). Still, thanks for the review and hope to keep you entertained!

* * *

**Contest Submission Date: **May 10th midnight (Please refer to my profile for instructions about how to enter)

**Poll is still up on profile! Please vote! I'd like to see what you guys think!**

* * *

**Day 5 Part 1 - Sweet Turns Sour**

_"__**Gi…ve…M…e…Co…ntr…ol,**__" a voice said._

_ Roll turned her head frantically. There was that voice again! This time though, Roll could actually patch together just what it was saying._

_ "__**Give Me…Control…**__" it said again._

_ "Who are you?" Roll asked. Fear was beginning to get to her. This voice…someone else was here. It was different this time around, more powerful. Roll actually felt like someone one was watching her rather than going crazy over a voice talking to her. Before she could ask again, something whizzed past her head. As she turned around, she found an arrow stuck in the ground. She gasped. It was a Roll Arrow. But she hadn't been the one who fired it._

_ She never saw the person who grabbed her by the head and threw her on the ground. The floor was cold; Roll couldn't see properly after the blow. Her face was pressed against the ground as she felt someone's breath against her, "__**Give me control.**__" It whispered._

_ Roll managed to open an eye. The person looking at her…was herself. Her pink bodysuit was replaced with a more purplish one and her bright green eyes were now a shade of purple. Her emblem was a lot darker than it normally was. 'Roll's' eyes glared daggers at her. "W-w-what are you?" the pink navi finally asked._

_ "__**It…doesn't matter. Give…me control.**__"_

_ "NO!" Roll said before she was wrenched from the ground and turned over._

_ "__**I wasn't asking…**__"_

_ "Let me go!" the pink navi said, suddenly sweeping her leg underneath the darker version of herself._

_ Both Rolls fell down and the darker half lost her grip. Roll scrabbled up from the ground and drew her bow. The other one stayed down on the ground. Roll was breathing hard, "Leave me alone."_

_ "__**I don't think you understand your current situation,**__" the purple navi got up from the ground and walked towards the frightened pink navi. Roll backed away, almost afraid to fire, "__**You don't have a say in the matter.**__"_

_ Roll's eyes darted everywhere but the purple navi in front of her. Why couldn't she fire? She had never been this afraid to use her weapon before in her life, "Stay back!"_

_ "__**Or what? You'll roll over me? No my pink counterpart, you're not going to make it out of this in one piece. Go ahead, scream. I know you want to…**__"_

_ "LEAVE ME ALONE!" Roll said, finally fired. The arrow clattered to the ground as it made contact with a purple aura._

_"__**More fight in you than I thought. But I know you can do better than that.**__"_

_ "No…" the navi said as she got to the edge of the cyber world. She couldn't back up anymore!_

_ "__**Out of places to run? Good. Now, we can get down to business.**__" Roll closed her eyes as the dark navi put a hand to her helmet, "__**Don't worry. Just know, this is going to hurt you a lot more than it hurts me.**__"_

* * *

Roll snapped awake; her body completely tense. Her head whirled around a couple times before she realized that she was safely in her PC comp. No dark Roll in sight. The navi took a few minutes to calm down. Mayl was still asleep; it was five on a Saturday morning after all.

_'Just a few more hours, keep it together Roll.'_ She thought. Dr. Hikari's plane would land, and the four of them would go out and see just what was wrong with her. He would fix her and everything would be fine.

_'__**Are you really that delusional? You think things will go back to normal after I'm done with you?**__'_

Roll's body went tense once again, except this time she didn't breathe. No! This wasn't right. She couldn't have been her. Not alive. No…it's just a dream. It's just a dream. It's not real. It's not real! Roll's repeated the mantra in her head several times. Maybe she should go to Hub's. No, bad idea. Especially after the last time. Roll's eyes grew bigger as she thought she heard something. Maybe... she should stay here. What if that thing was outside just waiting for her to come out?

_'__**How dare you? **__**THING? I'm hurt. **__'_

_ 'NO! SHUT UP! YOU'RE NOT REAL!'_

_ '__**Then why and how are you talking to me?**__'_

Roll growled as she got up from the ground. No something was toying with her. She opened up a screen with her coding again. She had to have a bug, some kind of error, anything! _'__**So, while you aimless trying to do that, you mind doing me a favor? It's nothing big. I just want control over your…well I guess for the moment, our body. I've barely had a chance to come out. I mean sure there was that time with Flashman and Napalmman and yesterday was kinda fun. But that was just a warm up.**__'_ the sharp voice in the back of head continued. Roll brushed her, no it, off and continued scanning.

'_**Fine. But for the record, I want everyone to know I was being nice before I did this. But then again…this will be kinda fun…for one of us.**__' _Roll's headache had disappeared after the incident with Napalmman until now. Now, it returned twelvefold. She muffled her voice so that she didn't wake up Mayl. No, she wasn't going to lose to this thing! She collapsed to the ground as the voice pestered her more and more.

_'__**Come on, pink puff! Break already!**__'_ it roared and Roll felt like the breath had been kicked out of her.

"Leave me alone…" she mumbled. Something inside her was stirring but she had no idea what it was. Come to think of it, she actually remembered this feeling! It was the way she felt right before she blacked out! For every instance where she had acted not herself, she had always been unconscious for it, at least mentally. When she woke up, she would remember what had happened while she was out, at least little pieces of it. Roll tried to isolate just what could be causing her to feel this much pain, but all she could tell was that this feeling was something dark. Something just wanted to cause chaos. No, it wanted to create it. It wanted to be surrounded by it.

_'__**Tough, I'll give you that. But that won't save you. I won't lose! Not to you! There's no Mega or Saber to save you this time! Give me control!**__' _Roll felt like she had been struck with lightning. She was certain that if Mayl hadn't heard her, she would have now. The pain was unbearable. What had she done to deserve this?

In her misery, she hadn't noticed the PET's alarm had gone off several seconds before she started screaming. Then again, it had been muted by someone along with mute the computer's speakers. She hadn't noticed the other navi until he walked right up to her.

"Sorry…this is for your own good."

* * *

He struck her unconscious before she could scream again.

At five in the morning, ACDC Area was completely dead. Only the local Mr. Programs were around, and even they were snoozing on a Sunday morning. No one saw a navi crack open Mayl's security cube. No one had seen the navi go in and come out with Roll slung over his shoulder.

For a kidnapping mission, this had been as clean as he could get. No witnesses and the girl completely knocked out. He was glad for it. He wasn't sure just how fine he would be after this was all over. Roll was as innocent as they came, he had seen her enough to know that. But sometimes you just had to bite the bullet and take one for the team. As he walked through the quiet network, he heard the pink navi groan in pain.

Whatever pain she was in before he got there even tormented her in her sleep. He felt bad for the navi, but shoved those feelings away. He couldn't bother holding such emotions at this time; he would be going soft if he did. They would only slow him down. In a few minutes, he was getting close to his destination. Reaching Oran Island Net Area wasn't so easy anymore under the newest remodeling, but he had made it. Now he just had to get to the comp, dump her off, and continue on his way.

However, fate was never kind to the navi. Roll started to fidget in his arms. She had started to move a bit when he had gotten past Central Area 3. Now though, she was beginning to get a little crazier. The navi tightened his grip on her, but was unable to hold it when a well-placed kick into his gut brought him to his knees. The pink navi took her chance to jump out of his arms and ran off into the Net.

"Good job my friend. You lost her," Mortis clapped as he came out of the shadows. The chained navi looked a little worse for wear today, but the navi didn't care. Not while he had something to clap and smirk about.

"You could chase her down," he growled.

"But where is the fun in that? It's no fun when I actually have to do it. You've bought a little more time. Just remember that I can end your life in a second. One slip up and you're done. Now, if you excuse me, I have to go clean up the mess you've made." Mortis said as he snapped his fingers. The navi was shoved aside as a beast like navi jumped in front of him, "Go track our little friend, Beatsman." Mortis turned back to kidnapper navi who had just climbed back to his feet, "You should return back home. You look awful." He cackled before jacking out.

"I'll make a bug frag look like a super model after I get my hands on you," he growled and punched the ground so hard a crater was formed. He held his hand after the fact; that was a stupid idea, but working with the devil was a worse one. As soon as he could, he was going to wring that navi's neck for making him his little puppet. The navi growled before leaving the network.

* * *

Roll didn't know where she was running too. At that point she didn't even care. She needed to be away from everything. She needed time. After sprinting out of Oran Island Net Area, she tore across Central Area 3 and headed into Sea Side Area 1. Finally, after long run, she slowed down. Finding a corner on the lower level of the area, the navi sat down.

Her headache had disappeared, but the fear inside her wasn't. She glanced over herself; so far nothing seemed to be different. She needed to go back home to Mayl. Maybe send an email to Mega. She knew it was early, but someone had just tried to kidnap her! She had a feeling that Mayl or Mega wouldn't care about the early wake-up call once she explained herself. However, for whatever reason, Roll couldn't bring herself up to returning back to ACDC. It was almost as if the place had stopped being her home. She couldn't really explain it. Was she afraid to go back?

_'__**Oh, don't mind me. Just messing with your head a bit. Man, I did not know you were so emotional. Geez, it's a cesspool in here.**__'_ Roll gritted her teeth as it explained itself,_'__**You don't want to go back because ACDC Area is not your home. Your home is not there. It's in Black Earth Area 2**__,'_ it said longingly.

"No, I belong in ACDC…" Roll countered weakly.

_'__**Don't lie to yourself. Even you are having doubts. Maybe you should just listen to me.**__'_

Roll almost had…if she hadn't noticed her gloves beginning to turn into a dark shade of purple. She clenched her fists and the color began to revert, "You're doing this to me…"

_'__**Doing what? Showing you what you are? Roll, my misguided counterpart, you have much to learn.**__'_

"You've got nothing to teach me. I'm going to Dr. Hikari and I'm going to find out just what kind of virus you are!"

"_**Virus?**_" Roll sneered. The pink navi put a hand over her mouth. The voice was her own, but it was much, much colder. _'__**That was interesting. You're losing strength. That was almost too easy. Well, Roll. You know what they say: out with the old, in with the new!**__'_

Roll's head felt like it was about to explode. She fell to ground and gripped her head. She bit her lip in order to stop from screaming. In her pain, she didn't see an orange navi walk up to her. The female navi seemed rather concerned, "Are you okay?"

"**Get away from me!**" Roll yelled as the navi turned tail and ran. The pink navi felt like her mind was splitting apart. Were navis even programmed to experience this, "What the…what the hell are you?" Roll's strength faded. She couldn't keep it at bay. The last thing she remembered was feeling as if she was falling deep into a pit of eternal darkness.

"_**Funny you should ask**__,_" Roll's bodysuit became darker in its hue and became a deep purple, "I'm you, Roll. Only…darker. Just call me Dark Roll. Hmm…" Dark Roll's head turned as she noted a beast like navi approach her, "What do you want?"

The navi was remarkably silent until he let out an ear piercing howl. Dark Roll covered her ears as the sound hit her sensors. What was this dog's deal? When it was done, the navi looked at her. The beast navi walked closer and closer before trying to pick up the girl. Dark Roll jumped out of the way and pulled her bow, "Sorry. I don't do hugs on the first date. Dark Arrow!" She fired. The arrow hit the navi directly in his arm.

Beastman howled in pain as he walked backward. Dark Roll smirked as she saw her enemy looked at her venomously. Before he could call an attack, she hit him again with another arrow. She never believed in mercy. After all, she was a creation of the darkness. Why would she? In the dark, one had to worry only about surviving. There was little room for "fairness". In minutes the navi had fallen to his knees after the continuous hits. She walked over to him and kicked him across his face, "Now. Are you going to tell me why you were after me?" The navi remained silent.

_'Wanna play hard ball does he?'_ she thought as she pulled out her arrow. She thought she was at just the right angle to hit him without deleting him before a sudden headache hit her.

_'__Give me back my body!__'_ Great, angel was still around. Dark Roll thought that she would have been under for much longer. She had seemed so weak. Where had this strength come from? It wasn't navi like, that was certain.

"It's my body now, girl. Stay out of my business." She paid no attention to the navi that had occupied her time. Beastman took the moment to jack out of the network; he hadn't signed up to deal with maniacs. However, Dark Roll wasn't left alone for too long. She had just gotten to the earsplitting part of her headache when she saw a navi wrapped in chains appear in front of her.

"Having trouble my dear?" he asked.

"I'm fine!" Dark Roll growled.

"I guess trying to fight back the control of your original half is more difficult than you thought." He smirked.

"How do you…"

"Who do you think arranged it to happen? Your freedom from the Black Earth. You didn't think that even you dark souls had survived resurfacing did you? No, no. I revived you and I gave you a host. Unfortunately, she's more durable than I gave her credit for."

"Can you get her out of me?" the dark soul asked hopefully.

"My dear, I can do many things, but that is beyond my reach. I do know someone who can allow you the freedom you so desire. But…"

"Always a but," she muttered.

"You must do something to prove your loyalty."

"I'm a dark soul. My loyalty is to no one!"

"Well, you better learn how to be. Otherwise, you and her will be trading places more times than you would like." He smirked, knowing that he had her.

The dark navi was silent for a second as the pounding worsened, "Fine! But," she yelled as she grabbed the navi by his chains and dragged him to her face, "I even think you're doing something funny and well…you're going to learn the full meaning of a woman's scorn," she chucked him backward, "So, what do you need me to do?"

"Don't worry. It's nothing hard," he said getting back up and putting a hand on her helmet despite her sneering at his closeness. Her headache instantly vanished. She could have sworn she had heard Roll say ow, "I do think you'll love it. After all, you are a form of chaos." He laughed.

_'Ready or not…here comes the end of your peaceful little lives.'_

* * *

Update: Friday

Ghost: Check devianArt (go to the site and look up MCGhost501) to check out Dark Roll's emblem.

Bass: You really shouldn't. Ghost can't draw.

Ghost: Lowering my self-esteem gives you some kind of comfort doesn't it?

Bass: Talk to my only one or two chapter involvement in this story.

Ghost: Get over yourself. You become important again in DN4.

Bass: And when are you writing that?

Ghost: After DN3.5 is written.

Bass: And when is that being written?

Ghost: Um...starting some time after DN3? ...Maybe?

Bass: ...

Ghost: Look, let's get past DN3 first before we talk about DN3.5 or 4. For now, just know that DN4 is halfway through planning and I may have to tweak its outline depending on the outcome of DN3.5 which is still being discussed. Ghost501 logging out! Don't forget to review! (Just so that everyone knows, if they're no dates for the release of these stories by the end of DN3, just follow me. I'm pretty good about letting you all know the release date details. Thanks for your support!)


	9. Chapter 8

**Review Responses:**

Ghost: ...*sigh* Nothing...

Bass: Funny, I was expecting tears.

Ghost: WAAAHHH! (cries BN4 Aquaman style)

Bass: There they are. ...I'm leaving before this place floods.

*I try not to be review grubby, but I still like them as much as the next FF writer*

**Contest Submission Date: **May 10th midnight

**Poll:** I will be making my decision soon. Enter the poll before the 30th, it will be closed by then.

* * *

**Day 5 Part 2 - Tearing Off The Covers**

_'WHERE IS SHE!'_ Mayl thought as she ran over to Lan's house. Normally she would have just called before coming over, but her normal etiquette was out of the window. Her navi was gone! Mayl had woken up at around eight that morning to find her PET and her computer muted. Her PET showed a warning sign saying that her security cube had been destroyed. What made it all worse was that she couldn't find Roll at all. The jack out command wasn't working and Roll hadn't been responding to any communication Mayl sent. She was beyond worried.

Mayl banged on the door frantically. She didn't want to be a pest, but this was an emergency! To her surprise, Megaman had opened the door. Occasionally, if everyone else was asleep, Megaman would just jump into the copybot and open the door since trying to wake up Lan was still a difficult task some days, "Morning Mayl. Sorry, Lan's too lazy to get up. Is something wrong?" he asked tiredly. Lan had kept him up all night with Set Theory problems.

"Yes, something is very wrong. I need you out of that copybot and on the Net as fast as you can," she said as she walked in the door.

"What's with the urgency?" he asked.

"Roll is gone!" she screamed. She hadn't meant to yell, but she didn't have any time to waste. She needed to find her best friend as soon as possible. What if someone had taken her? What if she was injured, all alone, and unable to get home? What if…no…anything but that. Mayl swallowed hard as Megaman shook her gently. Apparently she had blanked out.

"What do you mean Roll is gone?" the blue navi asked quickly.

"I woke up this morning and all my speakers were muted. Someone destroyed my security cube and I can't find Roll. She's not responding to anything. I can't jack her out. And with her having problems all week. What if something bad happened, Hub! What if—" Mayl felt her chest get heavy, she was finding it hard to breathe.

"Mayl! Calm! Down! You're giving yourself a panic attack," he said as he looked the red head straight in her eyes, "It's going to be okay. I'm going to find her alright. Just stay calm. You can't help us if you land yourself in the hospital."

She breathed deeply a couple of times, trying to get her natural rhythm back, "I'm sorry. You're right. I'm just worried about her."

"It's okay. I'll find her; I promise."

"Thank you, Hub."

"No need," he said as they hurried to Lan's room, "Lan, I need you to wake up right now!"

The brunette sat up as his brother jacked out of the copybot and back into his PET, "What's the emergency?"

"Roll is gone. My security cube is destroyed and I can't talk to her at all her," Mayl explained for the second time, calmer this time. Lan, noting the urgency in everyone's voices, jumped out of bed and grabbed his PET.

"We'll find her, Mayl. Come on, Megaman. We don't have any time to lose. Jack in, Megaman, Execute!"

* * *

"I don't get it. Why would anyone destroy your security cube?" Megaman asked as he got up from his crouched position. They had decided it would have been a good idea to return back to the scene of the crime to see what clues they could pick up. Unfortunately, there wasn't much. Whoever had destroyed the cube had done a number on it.

"More important question, why would anyone take Roll?" Lan pondered.

"We don't know that yet. Someone came in, but there's a chance she could have ran away." Megaman countered. He really didn't want to take that scenario into consideration. That would mean that not only could Roll be anywhere on the Net, but it would also mean that she would be at some sicko's mercy, "Alright, so we've got a destroyed cube, no Roll, and no evidence showing what in the world the intruder wanted. Which means we have nothing?"

"Maybe someone was looking for something in Mayl's PC?"

"But I don't have anything," Mayl chocked. Tears were beginning to form in her eyes. The more she thought about it, the grimmer the situation became. Someone had come for Roll. That was the only thing that made sense—even if Megaman tried to deny it. She had nothing for anyone to want. Her speakers had been muted; probably so she couldn't hear her friend's screams for help.

In an abnormal fit of rage, Mayl banged her fist on Lan's desk, "Why would anyone take her? She didn't do anything to anybody! She was innocent!" she cried as she felt Lan pull her into an embrace. For a while, she just cried. It was all too confusing. However, as she sobbed, a realization came to her.

_"And you! Stay out of the affairs of CHAOS! What we do is none of your business!...Not even you understand what power lies in these ghosts. But you'll find out. Don't worry about that; you will find out."_

"No…" she whimpered.

"What is it," Lan asked softly.

"They have her. CHAOS has her! That navi threatened her if she kept poking around. What if Flashman, Sparkman, and those other navis were a part of it? We helped stop them and now she's gone! What have I done?" Mayl felt terrible. She was the one who had gotten Roll into the mess in the first place! This was all her fault!

"You didn't do anything. I hate to admit it, but it's possible that you're right. But let's just assume that it's…"

"Who else would Lan! No one has a reason to harm Roll other than them!" Mayl growled back.

Lan just ignored it, knowing it was just her out of control emotions talking. Much like Megaman and him, Roll and Mayl stuck together like sisters. If Hub had been taken from him, he would be a _little_ frantic himself, "Fair. Megaman, see if anyone saw someone leave with Roll this morning. Someone had to have seen her."

"Got it!" Megaman said quickly and he ran off.

"Hey, it's going to be okay. I promise," he said holding her close.

"I'm sorry…I didn't mean to yell…" she said quietly.

"It's okay. I understand. We're going to get her back. Just stay strong for her okay. She's a lot tougher than she appears."

* * *

After a few minutes, Megaman was beyond frustrated. The Mr. Programs were more useless than he gave them credit for. No navis had been in the area and the green programs had been too sleepy to see anything!

'_Roll. Please, be okay,'_ he thought. He could almost laugh if it wasn't so tense. Here he was, a digitized human, worrying over his navi girlfriend. There had been a time when he didn't think that this would have even been possible. Now…he wanted to do more than anything to save her. Even if she wasn't human, he couldn't help but love her. Hub clenched his fist; he was going to find her.

'_**And what are you going to do once you find CHAOS?**__'_ Dark Hub asked. Megaman's eyes widened. His dark side had been pretty quiet for the most part since yesterday morning. In fact, last night had been the best he had slept in a week, _'__**What can I say? I had a feeling something was coming up. I needed my rest. After all, we all know that you'll go ballistic and give me control once you find CHAOS. Hmm...wonder if Crashman is still around? I never did get to finsih beating him into bytes.**__'_

"Yeah, right." Hub mumbled, "I'm not letting you control me again."

'_**Okay, if you say so. But, with all this going on, I have to wonder how Roll is doing right now? I mean, Mayl's right. She's obviously been taken by them, you naive little navi. You think their dissecting her line by line? Maybe she's being held in a cage somewhere dangling above some kind of horrible monster. Oh, you think their giving her bugs? I've heard of some bad kinds that really mess you up! And not your little Navi Cust slip ups, I'm talking total core corruption here.**__'_

If Hub's knuckles were visible, they would be whiter than Protoman's hair. He had to keep his cool. Dark Hub was only trying to get him angry. He couldn't get clouded by emotion. Roll needed him! The navi took a deep breath before shaking his head. He knew that it did nothing to the dark being in his head, but he dreamed that he too would be rattled around in there.

"Megaman!" a voice called out. As the blue navi turned his head, he saw Saber running towards him. He hadn't seen the navi since earlier that week, but he had never been happier to see him. Maybe he had seen Roll.

"Saber!" he said as the blue and green navi pulled up to a stop. The navi looked like he was about to speak, but Megaman cut him off, "Have you seen Roll?"

"No, I haven't. Why? Is she missing?" he asked worriedly.

"Yeah, and Mayl's security cube was damaged. We think…we think someone took her, but we have no idea where she is."

"Navi-napped? Oh man…I'm sorry, Megaman. I haven't seen her since Wednesday. You need any help?"

"We could use all the help we can get." Megaman nodded and the two navis walked into the other areas. After entering into Central Area 3, the two navis began to hear something in Sea Side Area. The navis nodded to each other, too much of coincidence. If they were going to find Roll, whatever was going on in Sea Side Area was going to be the first step.

* * *

When they got into Sea Side Area 1, the whole Net area had been set in a pandemonium. Navis had started to pull out battle chips and begun to attack each other. Emotions between them were running high; it was like some kind of huge fight club! Many of the navis were beginning to block the main path. Fighting them would only make things more complicated, so Megaman and Saber decided to just sneak their way around the crowds. As they walked forward, something caught Megaman's eyes.

In the center of the area on the lower floor was a small machine. It was a dark red color and seemed to be sending out some kind of signal. Megaman and Saber made their way to the warp which would send them to the lower floor. As Megaman got closer to it, he felt himself become a little angry. However, he just pushed those emotions to the side; getting angry wouldn't help him figure out this situation and would only increase Dark Hub's agitation. Saber, on the other hand, did not. The blue and green navi flung Megaman into the machine. He growled as his eyes began to turn red.

"Saber! I can't jack him out!" Saria cried.

"Megaman, try this one. Lock Shot 1! White Capsule!" Megaman's buster turned army green in color and fired. The shot hit Saber dead on and the navi was paralyzed.

Working quickly, Megaman deactivated the machine. It had been a little harder than most of the server computers he normally dealt with, but he had gotten the job done. As the machine shut down, the navis in the area began to stop fighting. Several of them were looking at each other, unsure of what they had just been doing. Saber shook his head briefly before speaking again, "What just happened? I remember getting mad and then…"

"Of course! This machine is messing with all the navis' emotion programming! This machine is making them all angry and causing them to fight!" Lan said.

"But then why wasn't Megaman affected?" Saria asked.

"Um…that's a long story. We don't really have time right now to talk about it. Come on! These machines are probably in the other areas as well!" Lan said hurriedly as the two navis sped forward.

* * *

After two more deactivations, the chaos in Sea Side Area finally calmed down. Megaman looked towards the ground sadly. He had stopped the chaos, but they weren't any closer to finding Roll. Before he could get lost in his thoughts, he felt someone tap his shoulder. As he turned, his legs were kicked from underneath him and he was sent to the ground.

"That was for messing with my emotion scramblers. Don't you know how hard I worked on them! It's not like I had time to reinforce them!" a female voice said.

Megaman's eyes snapped open. It sounded Roll's voice, but it was different. He looked up to see Roll Dark Soul. Even after not fighting the navi for several years, he still remembered their encounter in Black Earth. He almost hadn't been able to delete her. For a moment, she had even faked being the real Roll, despite the color palate differences. Luckily, Lan had been there to help him through it.

"But you're…you're supposed to be…" Megaman started.

"Deleted? Well, you're right. I was. I had a little help and I must say, Roll's body is much more suited for me than that hastily put together one I had in Black Earth. This one is much more…powerful," she smirked.

Megaman got up to his feet, "What did you do to Roll!"

"Unfortunately, nothing. She's still here, but soon she won't be anymore! I just can't wait to be rid of her! I don't know how you stand her; she so annoying! She keeps on telling me to give her her body back and not to hurt anyone. It's kinda pathetic if I'm honest."

"Let her go! She didn't do anything to you!" Mayl cried.

"It's not that she did anything to me—well she did delay me for as long as she could, that was a thing. It's more that her body just suits my needs the best. We're _almost_ the same person after all," the dark soul smirked as she walked calmly over to Megaman and Saber, "Now, Lan. You're going to jack out blue boy. Otherwise, I may send him home in data bits." her voice ending sharply on her last comment.

"Roll, this isn't you. Snap out of this!" Megaman said as both he and Saber backed up, not wanting to possible hurt Roll in a fight.

"I'm sorry. What'd you say? 'Cause all I hear is 'Delete me. Please, my life can't go on.' And if you insist—" Dark Roll said, but her face flashed for a brief moment in pain. Like someone was trying to get her to stop, "FINE!" The dark soul's eyesight shifted towards Saber as several pieces of bamboo surrounded Megaman, "I'll deal with you later, blue boy."

"Saber! Crap, Lan! A little help here!" Megaman said as Dark Roll started firing arrows at Saber.

"Right! Heat Cross! Lava Shot—" Lan started before Roll had hopped back into the air. The navi fired a single shot at Megaman, pegging the navi and disabling the chip download. Now, the only thing that was active was the Heat Cross.

"I knew I forgot something. Anubis!" the dark soul said as she landed back on the ground and dashed back to confront Saber. A dog like statue appeared behind Megaman as his Heat Cross took over. Before he could fire a Fire Arm, another one appeared. And another! Soon the orange navi was surrounded by several of the statues, each producing their own poison gas.

"Fire *cough* Arm!" Megaman wheezed as the gas started to drain his energy away. However as he fired, the air around him ignited and blew him backward, causing the navi to land painfully on some pieces of bamboo. The navi slowly got to his feet. At this rate, he would be too weak to even fight a mettuar once he got out of this trap, "Lan *cough* We need to clear out this gas. *wheeze* I'm just going to be burning it all at this rate," he said as he crossed out. He wouldn't be able to cut out the flames coming from the bodysuit unless he swapped it out.

"Alright, hang on! Wind! Download!" a small blue box appeared next to Megaman and started to push back to gas. Megaman breathed out, happy that he could at least somewhat breathe again, "Thanks! Now, let's get to Saber!"

"Right! Program Advance! Lava Shot 3! Wind! Heat Side! Wind Flare!" Megaman's buster switched over to a small fan as fire blazed out of it, destroying both the Anubises and the bamboo around him. When he got out of the trap, he realized that Saber was a lot worse for wear. The navi looked like he had actually taken a severe beating. Dark Roll laughed as she walked over, her dark sword crackled with electricity.

"Don't look so sad, Saber. At least you have your memories. You know before I delete you." Dark Roll was now right in front of him, "Any last words?"

"Saber!" _'Not like Tox. Not again! This can't be happening again!'_ Saria thought, fear completely paralyzing her.

"No? Funny, I thought you would have at least a I'm sorry. A shame the Net's been remodified recently. Guess you won't be seeing Tox even after you die. Ah well, goodbye Saber!"

The blue and green navi closed his eyes; he had barely been able to move. Despite his best to parry most of her attacks, she was actually a lot stronger than any other time he had fought her. Plus, it didn't help that he hadn't been really trying to hurt her either.

"Anti-Sword! Download!"

"WHAT!" he heard Dark Roll's shocked voice right before she got launched backwards by three green sonic waves. In front of Saber, holding his own light green sword was Megaman. Dark Roll snarled as she bounced back from the attack, "You...I'll delete you!"

_'Come on, Roll. I know you're still in there! Fight her!' _he pleaded mentally. Luckily, by some miracle, she seemed to get the message. Dark Roll clutched her head and screamed out loud. The bow was deactivated and Megaman got back up. The purple navi stared straight at him with bright green eyes in comparison with the dark green ones he looked at only seconds ago, "Mega…please. …You need to…delete me. I…I…can't…stop…her."

"No!" Mayl yelled.

"There's no way we're doing that, Roll. Out of the question!" Lan agreed.

"Please Roll. Let us help you. Dad can fix you," he said walking closer to her. He was only three feet away when chains appeared around him and Saber.

"Must I do everything for myself!" a chained navi roared.

"No, Roll run!" Megaman said as he struggled against his shackles. However before she could move, the navi appeared right next to her.

"Roll...Flash!" she swung her antennae at the navi, but was thrown to the ground before she could even land a hit.

"Nice try. But I've seen enough of your battles to see that one coming. Unfortunately for you, play time is over," he smirked as her own set of chains wrapped around her.

"MEGA! SABER! HELP!" she cried.

"Slash Cross! Wide Blade! Download!" Megaman's armor changed into a greenish tint and a purple-ish sword appeared in the place of his hand. Slashing against the chains, Megaman freed himself of his bonds.

"Break Saber! Download!" Saber too broke free of the trap, sword in hand.

The blue bomber charged, "Stay away from her!" He didn't get far. Beastman ran forward and blocked the hit for him. Even though the attack had slashed him across the chest, the navi knew what he needed to do.

"Come on, Saber!" Megaman called to Saber. However, the navi just stood there, "What's wrong Saber? You wanna get Roll back or not?"

Mortis merely laughed, "Your friend isn't attacking for different reasons. Don't you see the guilt in his face? He's the reason your little Roll over here is the way she is now!" He revealed as he held up a hand, calling off Beastman for the moment.

Silence quickly filled the room. Saria was the first one to break it, "Saber…"

"Give Roll back to us!" Saber growled, seemingly trying to get the conversation away from him.

"And why should I do that? But." Mortis smirked. Maybe there was an easier way out of this mess, "Then again, I guess I should give you a thank you of some sort. You did make all of this possible."

"What?" Saber looked completely flabbergasted. He had no choice with taking Roll, but he didn't endanger her any more than that. Mortis said all he wanted was five minutes with her. He could have even stayed to make sure that nothing bad happened to her or him.

"Yes, Saber. Think back to last week. You gave her something."

"No…I…the Variable Sword data…" He said, realizing his mistake. No, this wasn't supposed to happen. He had gotten rid of the data. There was no way he could have given it to Roll, "NO! I chucked that thing down into the Underground! There's no way that thing could have found its way back to me!"

"Correction, you tried to chuck it into the Underground. Unfortunately for you, dark chips are get pretty attached to you innocent types. Though it seemed like she really couldn't resist worming her way into lighter self's systems." Mortis cackled as if this whole scenario was some kind of sick joke. He looked at Saber whose eyes flaming with rage at being tricked, to Megaman, who seemed like he didn't know what to think, "Yyou must feel awful. You just betrayed everyone who knew, loved, and respected. You killed your sister last year and now you've let your little sister be tainted with a dark chip and almost kidnapped her to bring her to me. I wonder if she'll ever trust you again. Hmm…I think that makes two for two for sisters, Saber. Maybe you should just try being sibling-less. Or maybe," his eyes flashed darkly, "I should just put you out of your misery. Beastman!"

Unlike Megaman, Saber didn't know just how fast Beastman could react and the blue navi was back on the ground in seconds. The animal like navi seemed to prepare himself for another attack when Megaman cut him off. The green navi's claws raking into the ground as Beastman jumped out of the way.

_'**Oh, a little angry are we? Well, if it makes you feel any better, I at least like the new Roll. Everything I could ever want really, much better than the boring old one. I know, we can all trade bodies! I take over you, she takes over Roll. Everyone wins!**' _Dark Hub said, only causing Megaman to become angrier. He was trying to keep a cool head and not go after Saber until he at least heard him out. But with everything going on, it was fair to say that he was being somewhat unsuccessful in doing so.

As Saber tried to get back up, Mortis shook his head, "Don't move an inch Saber. You know what'll happen if you do," Saber sent a harsh glare at the chained navi before them. Roll and Megaman were glancing back between him and Mortis. What did the navi have on Saber? "Good boy. Now go and jack out. It's been a long day for you." He shooed the navi away.

"I'm sorry guys. I can't." Saber said, closing his eyes and jacking out.

"What did…you do…to him?" Roll growled.

"My my. What a heart you have. After everything he's done and you're still worried about him. What is it with you three and your loyalty issues? You're much too easy to take advantage of," he turned back to Megaman, "I'm afraid that our little party is going to have to end for now, Megaman. Don't worry. You'll see your precious little Roll soon. In the meantime, sick 'im Beastman."

"Wild Rush!" he yelled as his body separated and attacked Megaman. The blue navi jumped out of the way and fired a Wide Slash. The attack connected again and Beastman fell to the ground. The navi tried to get back up to continue the fight, but he couldn't. It appeared that he had been wounded earlier and still had not recovered. His already unstable data fell apart and he was deleted. Unfortunately, he had done his job.

As Megaman looked around, he realized that the chained navi had made his escape …along with Roll.

* * *

Update: Monday

Ghost: *glub* *glub* ... _This isn't working...where's that plug?_ *Ghost pulls the random drain plug* I swear if it wasn't for Aquaman's random visits I would have never installed this stupid thing. Anypanel, this has been one hell of a day.

Bass: At least it's finally over...

Ghost: Who told you that lie.?I may not have broken the day record yet, but I'm sure going to break a day part record.

Bass: ...oh no.

Ghost: Yep, New DN Day record! Day 5 is a total of 4 parts. See you all next week! Oh and because I keep on forgetting to mention this Saber is a reference to the SF battle card Break Sabre. Ghost501 logging out! Don't forget to review!

* * *

Completely off topic, but I'd just thought I'd ask. Anyone know any good Shakugan no Shana fanfictions or recommend one? I recently got into the anime so I've been going a bit crazy trying to learn about the series and what not.

Also, I'm feeling a bit crazy...Eevee team suggestions in Pokemon Y. You don't have to include move list if you don't want to. Currently have every Eevelution but a shiny Sylveon which I'll hopefully have by the end of the weekend. Anyway, just wondering. Ghost501 logging out!


	10. Chapter 9

**Review Responses:**

**terratasha:** No problem, I understand! Review whenever you can! Well, I guess it's a good thing we have a villian's side in this story. Yep, the rest of this day is told in the POV of none other than Void and Mortis! I decided to try something new, especially since Void and Mortis are leaving the realm of interesting side characters to important main characters. Dark Hub is hanging around mostly for...well, you'll see. You guys kinda already know since it's what he wants every time he talks...but you'll see more Dark Hub soon. Terra, check out ShadowDusk's review for more info on Black Earth. One edit to it is that you actually get the Navi Cust ability Soul Cleanse and Hub. BAT I believe. You actually need to fight Bass to get Bass after getting all six evil chips. Ultimately, it's a testing grounds. This weird place pits Megaman against all of his Double Soul friends in their Dark Soul Forms in each respective game in BN4. In the end, you'll have to fight a shadow form of Megaman (for only like the umpteenth time in the game...yeah, not much of a fan of BN4's game play logic). Yeah, only took me to my third installment to realize, hey I haven't used copybots yet! Thanks for review! Hope your life clears up a bit!

**ShadowDusk94:** Dang, that sounds terrible! Yep, this is the point when you realize Dark Roll's been hanging around the whole game and subconsciously teaching Roll martial arts. I'm not going to lie, some of Dark Roll's fighting style is gotten from my memory of the Empress Roll episode in the anime. I occasionally get inspiration from certain scenes and episodes, but I'm still not sold on the series as a whole. Emotion scramblers? Similar? Hahahaha...Iwasn'tmakingareferencetoStarforce1withthewholeGeminiSparkdealwhatareyoutalkingabout? Even though that was exactly what was going through my mind when I made this. Huh...maybe that's why I was so interesting in getting help to make a crossover. Every now and again, I put in little Starforce throwbacks. Anyway, that's for answering that question for terra! I had to auto correct a bit, but for the general concept you were correct. I just went a little more into it. Thanks for reviewing!

**May 10th midnight, submission deadline for Roll's Merge Contest!**

* * *

**Day 5 Part 3 - Void Breaks In**

"You have who!" Dawn's mouth had almost dropped to the floor. She had been surprised to see Mortis crack an abnormally large smile when he jacked back in from the Net. However, she was more interested in the navi he was keeping behind his back.

"I have Roll, Ms. Dawn. She may not be exactly as you have previously seen her…but I'm sure fixing that little problem will be no problem for someone of your caliber," he bowed before her and walked to the side, revealing the purplish pink navi behind him. True to his word, he did have her…at least a dark soul form anyway. Dawn sighed; these navis were truly human like to a certain point, right down to stupidity.

"I don't need a dark soul, Mortis. If I did, I would have had you bring me an army of them. I was merely researching them to discover more about Megaman's recent performance. If you are done wasting my time, I must get back to my research," she stared back at a printed copy of some of Dr. Regal notes about the transferring of evil energy into a battle chip. His methods were actually quite genius.

"I guess I must show you what I mean. Void, can you help me? Make sure she doesn't run off," he said before turning back to the dark navi, "This isn't permanent I assure you," the dark soul shot him a look, "I know I just brought you back but I need proof to show Ms. Dawn. She's the one who can help you. Remember," he said as nicely as he could before putting a hand on her head and the navi seemed to drift off.

"You're comforting her?" Void questioned.

"You've met a denizen of the dark before Void. If you would like to see what only a fraction of that power does, then by all means allow her to think I'm betraying her," Mortis growled as the purple color drained from Dark Roll's bodysuit. In moments, Roll's green eyes fluttered.

The pink navi looked to her right and noticed that Mortis was next to her. She shrieked and turned to her left, bumping into a red navi behind her. His visor covering his face seemed even darker than Protoman's—which she hadn't even thought was possible. Roll bounced back only to have chains sprout up from the ground and encase her.

"HELP! MEGA! SABER! HELP!" she screamed.

"You could have just done that the whole time…" Void grumbled.

"I needed a distraction. You were the only one around." Mortis shrugged. He had never been extremely fond of Void. Mortis had been programmed to be his subordinate. When Dawn had put Void under and reassembled him, Mortis had somehow gone from second rate to fifth rate. Almost as if she considered him some kind of failure model. He knew what she had thought of failures. Her total disregard to Hypnia, Crystal, Lavaman, Solarman, and every WWW navi he brought in informed him of that.

"GET AWAY FROM ME! MEGA! SABER! HELP!" she yelled as Mortis covered the pink navi's mouth. He forced the navi to look him in his dark eyes.

"Didn't anyone tell you that you talk too much? Now keep quiet!" he yelled. Roll went quiet; her green eyes widened with fear. Oh how he loved those looks. He was a ghost reviver. He never got to see the true fear of people when they saw navis simply come back from the dead. He had always been told to leave as soon as the job was done and he had never had a reason to disobey those orders.

"Hmm…how did you manage to capture her and resurrect the dark soul?" Dawn asked curiously. Mortis had become full of surprises lately; once again, doing something she had never programmed the navi to do. What would she have to do to ensure things like this never happened?

"I dragged her into Black Earth and resurrected her dark soul. However, the data was too badly corrupted. I had to merge both of them together; it was the only way to preserve the dark soul," he explained.

"I guess I should have been more specific," she pinched her nose. Weren't navis supposed to be smart, "I didn't ask you to revive the navis in Black Earth because I know nothing about them. Therefore, why did you bother trying to raise a dark soul navi in the first place?"

Void merely smirked at the scene in front of him. Dawn had him now. Mortis steeled himself and continued, "If it is one thing I have learned during my time is that the wise warrior attack's his enemy's heart and not body. We can summon as many navis as we want to in order to get Megaman. But we have to key to his heart right here in front of us. If we use her, he won't be much of a problem to us anymore."

Dawn nodded as if agreeing with him. He almost had the chance to smile…that was before she spoke, "There is one flaw in your plan. The cornered viper is more likely to strike than an observed one. You may have stolen his heart, but you have only stoked his anger. The next time Megaman sees your face, well, I'm not sure if anyone may be able to save you. Also, you brought her here. Now I actually have to do work in wiping her memory of me without doing any kind of damage to her. Do you have any idea what you've just done? What's worse is that you've not only brought Megaman's girlfriend here, but a Black Earth navi! Do you have any idea how unstable they are?

"So, instead of taking the derailed train, here's what you'll do instead. You will wait while I scan the navi. Then when I'm finished, you will return her back to the Hikaris. This dark soul is not staying her a second more than she has to. Without Nebula Gray or even Regal, they answer to no one. After that, you will return back her for your decommissioning; I've had just about enough of your surprises. You've jeopardized a lot of work for your little stunt to work. I mean it, you're done. I don't need these ghosts of yours anymore. You understand, Mortis?"

And there it was. Finally, she had said it. After months of merely beating around the bush, she had finally said that she wanted to be rid of him. Perhaps she had gotten tired of the World Three navis being unable to properly power Void. Perhaps she had just gotten tired of seeing his gloomy appearance every day. He didn't care. All he knew is that she had finally said get out of my life. And he was more than happy to oblige…not.

The navi nodded solemnly and led the shaking pink one towards her. In seconds, she had been forced into sleep mode, leaving Mortis to stand guard and watch—or rather for him to be watched. After a few minutes, Dawn called Void over and talked to him. Mortis didn't really care what was being said. He had to plan out what he would do next. In hindsight, he had considered this being a possibility, but he thought that Dawn would see the sense behind his genius. Ah, well. He could still salvage something from this unfortunate turn of events.

"That was some stunt you pulled," Void said, calling him out of his thoughts, "I don't know if you have some kind of death wish or something, but you put yourself in the hot seat. I wish you a painless deletion."

Void walked past him and jacked into the Net. Mortis clenched his fists, "And I hope Megaman or Bass delete you one of these days…painfully," he growled. He would recover from this. All he needed to do was wait.

* * *

In truth, Void didn't feel sorry for Mortis. They had rules and he had broken them. Everything went by Dawn before they actually committed to it. As dictator-ish as that sounded, Void looked at it as nothing more and a true testament of Net Navi and NetOp cooperation. One party didn't do anything without another one acknowledging that it was indeed good enough to pursue. Void didn't pretend to understand why his NetOp had an obsession with discovering these facts, but he would gladly help her out.

Out of all the navis she had built, he had been the only navi she had ever called her navi. All the others were just that, other navis. In return for her favor, he never questioned her and did whatever she asked. If anyone threatened her, he would delete them. If she wanted him to destroy the world, well the humans were going to have to find a different place to live.

As he walked, he couldn't help but remember the voice of that purple street vendor from a few days ago. He had gone to him in order to find the location of Dr. Regal's computer. Laserman hadn't been too much help after he had absorbed him. His memory had been corrupted by space after he was deleted and there wasn't much hope for the recovery of it. Luckily, Nebula flunkies were everywhere.

_"I don't know why you would want to go there…but I just have one thing to tell you. Any navi that goes into that man's warped space does not come out the same. It changes you. It makes you watch your shadow. It creates a fear that no navi was meant to understand. It creates self-fear and hate. You were warned."_

Indeed the knowledge that was in Dark Comp was quite horrific. He actually didn't know how Dawn read the stuff with such a straight face. In the files of that computer, he discovered just how a dark chip overwrote the minds of navis. Prolonged exposure would even cause them to become a different person all together. They forgot their NetOps. They craved destruction. They lost their emotions. In the end, they had become zombies. Merely taking orders from whoever was at their command. It corrupted them and destroyed them.

The whole thing made even Void sick. He had been told little about the navis in Black Earth. How they had been used as tests for Megaman to see if he control his inner darkness before attempting to destroy his own evil. Dawn had told him that Regal believed that they were true dark navis. They hadn't been tainted by the dark chips. No, they had just been formed out of the evil energies in order to test a more powerful being. They had no master. They lived only to fight and create chaos. He shivered as he thought of the one he had just seen. Despite possessing power, even Void had become uncertain of the navi when he noticed her walk in.

He figured that if things went south, he would have been able to handle her. However, Dawn had informed him that he was missing just one thing, a complete battle routine. Sure they could go for their loved ones, but it would only add to their troubles since it would merely draw attention to them. She kept going on about how hard it would be to get a good scan of her opponents. Once she had Roll and Megaman, she would be able to complete his battle capabilities. Until then, he was to train and do her bidding. Like he was about to do.

He stepped into the Dr. Itumi's Comp. Now to find her work. Dawn had told him that she had noticed several notes in Roll's programming, included dates and printed signatures of a Dr. Itumi. The only one that existed in the area was a teacher at the Cyber City Community College. Dawn figured out where she lived and sent Void the coordinates. The security cube wasn't a problem to deal with; he just opened a Void Hole to send it through. Now, he was here and about to take her files. Everything Dawn would need to understand Roll.

His eyes glazed over as several security navis came at him. So, the woman was smart enough to carry a little extra heat with her. He dodged right as a cyber sword barely missed him. _'Too slow. Proto Cross would have gotten you.'_ He thought as he switched to a gray blade himself. He countered the navi and slashed forward. The navi parried and pushed him back. _'You're lucky this guy is just security. Slash Cross would have had words for you.'_ He growled again as his hand morphed into a Lava Shot and fired.

The unsuspecting navi took the hit. Void grabbed him and slung him towards the other side of the net area. As he continued, fire blazed around him. He noticed that a navi was using the Hell's Burner Program Advance. As the blaze continued, Void let himself get used to the heat. _'Either now or Pyra Merge later.'_ He grumbled before throwing an Aqua Tower straight throw the flames. The navi was completely washed up and laid on the floor groaning.

"Stop! Stop right now!" he heard as five navis showed up behind him. He frowned. He was hoping for a bigger bang.

"Void Hole," he said as a black hole appeared around the navis and sucked them in. In seconds, they were spit out again. They were worse for wear, but otherwise okay, "Begone…Void Hold." the navis were flung away as a homing shot blasted them. They landed on the ground hard. Hmm…so Gravityman and Elementman were good choices for his battle design after all. He couldn't wait until he had more. He walked up to the doctor's computer and before he got close enough to access the files, a firewall popped up in front of him. As he analyzed it, he realized it was a high grade one. The doctor had tried to be smart and hid her files in place not on her person and then protect it in a rarely used computer. But she didn't factor in one thing, him.

Void gathered a weird white orb in his hands and threw it forwards. The orb spread out and turned into a widespread attack, the Elemental Tower Program Advance. As the water, fire, and wood crashed into the firewall, the barrier weakened. Void's hand changed into a amplifier of sorts and he blasted at it again with an Elec Pulse 3. The waves disrupted the program even further and Void charged at it, punching through the barrier like glass. The navi smirked as he accessed the computer and stole the files. Well, Dawn did say make sure to leave them in a bind. As he walked away, his Void Hold struck the console. Leaving him with the only digital copy of Roll's programming, as far as they knew.

He smiled to himself. He wouldn't have to wait for much longer now.

* * *

Update: Friday

Bass: He's still not a challenge...

Ghost: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Anyway, a couple of things. One, remember that Roll is not a SciLab Project, so she doesn't have any record files there. Dr. Itumi does work at a college and specializes in navi development, not that unlikely she keeps a copy of her files in the place she works. Also, Void _is_ getting an elemental bonus because of Elementman's ability. So, that's why he knocked down that firewall so easily. Oh, DN fact (cause it's not like I don't occasionally make quizzes for these things)... the following chapter and this chapter were originally called the Day 3 P1 & 2: Void and Mortis. After the remodeling and addition of the actual Day 3 and Day 4, the Void and Mortis chapters were merged with the actual Day 5 title line. Speaking of quizzes...

**DN Quiz:** What was the name of the Synchro Program in Day 1 that Lan, Megaman, and Dr. Hikari started to work on but ultimately never finished due to certain problems caused by the one and only Dawn?

**Bonus:** In DN1, who were the only three navis that Roll fought that she never deleted? One of these navis should be a dead giveaway. It's not like it's not mentioned in this story...

Get the bonus right, I post a preview of Day 6 which may or not include that ever so hilarious Dark Hub acting out again...Ghost501 logging out!


	11. Chapter 10

**Review Responses:**

**davidthefrogman:** Yeah I get what ya mean. Hopefully one day more people will pick up their old stories and series and continue. Until then, I guess. Anyway, that's what I hope to do.

**ShadowDusk94: **Not bad for just memory! Oh, yeah...totally forgot about BN5. Meh, they both work. Yeah, Mortis is a much more important villain this time around and is going to be one for a while. Speaking of him, let's go see what's going on in that head of his. ...Wait a second...hey! That's my line! XD

* * *

**DN Quiz: **Sync Program. Created by Dr. Hikari, this is the first major SciLab Project that Lan and Megaman worked on in the Double Network timeline. However, the program was corrupted by antagonist, Dawn and used to control Lan and therefore control Megaman. The project was left unfinished after the events of Double Network 1.

**Bonus:** Megaman, Protoman, and Saber. Protoman originally fought Roll after Megaman and Lan were out of the picture. It was during this fight that the program installed in Roll shortly after the BN main heroes leave activated, causing Roll to get her first merge, Pyra. She later fought Saber in which she sort of won. While not deleting him, she managed to give him enough room to overpower a mind controlled Saria.

**Don't forget that May 10th is the deadline!**

* * *

**Day 5 Part 4 - Corruption**

Mortis knew he was running out of time when he saw Void return with Dr. Itumi's notes. It wouldn't take too long for Dawn to crack them. Soon, she wouldn't have any need for the navi anymore and he would have to return her or dump her somewhere. Either way when he returned, Mortis knew that he would be deleted. Void would probably be the gun. He grimaced inwardly as he saw the red navi drag the pink one outside of the comp. He dropped her right outside of the warp.

As Mortis looked at her he noticed that her eyes seemed completely drained. She barely blinked, must have been an effect of the memory wiping. He wondered just what was it like going through her memories. Many navis were extremely defensive about it. Not being able to fully understand emotions, many felt like their memories were the only things they could actually called theirs. It was what gave them that little extra edge to understand their NetOps.

Mortis grimaced, he had no such need. Working with the dead, it reminded him that nothing a navi ever did would be truly appreciated. When they were deleted, they were missed but no one ever tried to bring them back. They were merely left for dead. Humans…such a selfish species. Void pushed the navi forward, but she fell down on her face. She barely had the energy left to groan.

Void stared at the chained navi in front of him, "Do whatever you want with her. Delete her. Take her back home. I don't care. Just whatever you do, make sure you return back here for your decommissioning. I would rather not waste my time in trying to find you," the navi turned away and walked back to speak with Dawn.

Mortis sneered at the pink navi, "Move."

"I can't," she breathed. Her green eyes were dull. Her face wasn't filled with fear anymore. She just seemed…tired.

"You can talk, can't you?"

"My…energy's…completely…gone. Drained."

Well, that certainly explained her dull pink color. Still, he couldn't just keep her here. After all, he still needed her to fulfill his plans. He materialized a full energy subchip in his hands and offered it to the navi. It wouldn't be much help for her in her state, but it would move things along. She seemed to look at the chip cautiously…or was she just misinterpreting it as the world's smallest pillow. After a few seconds, she seemed to make up her mind.

She slapped the chip away with the energy ribbons on her helmet. As it fell on the floor, a small poof sound was made. The navi looked up from the ground, "Stay…away…from me."

So, she did remember the events earlier that day. Probably just not Dawn. "I was just trying to help," he smiled.

"Yeah…right. Probably corrupted…like…Saber's."

"I'm not surprised he tried to get rid of the chip. Ah well, such as the price of using Dark Chips."

"You…used…him."

"My dear, you seem not to understand my case. I'm as good as deleted in her eyes unless I do something right. Well, I'm going to advance her little plot. Void may not be ready to take action, but I am. For almost a year now, I've been raising navis from the depths of Net resurfacing. And what do I get for it? Merely more orders. Not even one small token of appreciation. Well, after I send you off…I will show her just how useful I can be, just not in the way she imagined. Now, since you're being so rude, I need to talk to your other half. She'll be much happier in absorbing a fellow dark soul's power."

"No! Stay…away…" she tried to pick herself off from the ground, but it was too late. By the time she had even gotten an inch off the ground, Mortis had already placed his hand on her head. Roll's eyes closed for a second before reopening. Dark Roll's darkened eyes blazed with anger, "That witch…tried…to…destroy me!"

Hmm, interesting. The original had forgotten while the dark soul remembered. "Yes, she was much less helpful than I thought she would have been. My apologies for that. But, I may be able to help you get back to your old self," he said holding up the chip which Dark Roll snatched out of his hands. In seconds, the navi was able to get back up to her feet.

"Ah, much better. Now," she said grabbing Mortis and putting a Dark Fire Sword to his neck. The purple flames licked extremely close to his gray bodysuit, "Remember what I said about doing something funny? You have five seconds to give me a good reason why I shouldn't delete you right now. Five! Four!"

"Because I know another way to get Roll out of your head. The witch was just more convenient to get to." Dark Roll loosened her grip, "Good. Now, I need you to do me a favor. Wait for me in Oran Island Area 2. Stay hidden. Megaman and the others will be searching for you. Do not reveal yourself until I show up. Once I do, you will be able to cause as much chaos as you want."

"Why the wait?" she looked at him impatiently.

"I must be prepared for the inevitable. My time is running out. However, I'm in the last stages of my plan anyway. Yes, now go and don't attract any attention to yourself from anyone. If that red navi catches you, he'll delete you in a second. Though considering your current state, a Mettuar might be able to delete you with a lucky shot. You and Ms. Dawn have certainly done a number on Roll's body."

"What can I say? She can't handle these kinds of parties." The dark soul smirked before walking back to the Oran Island Area, himself, "Oh and by the way..." Mortis barely say the flick of her sword as she slashed him. The navi groaned as he looked down at the chains that surrounded his body. The sword's flames had warmed the chains, leaving a distinct slash mark. A recover chip could probably undo the damage, however...,"That was strike one. I don't think you'll like what I do for strike two." Dark Roll's sword switch back to her hand as she continued walking away.

Mortis followed a safe distance away from sword range. However, as he lagged behind the navi, he noticed that Dark Roll took a detour. Probably all for the better. He didn't want to have to make even more lies to her. She was perceptive and was probably just waiting for him to slip. Mortis sighed and continued to his hideaway. Oh the price of being the navi reviver.

* * *

Mortis typed in a few more commands before placing a Gregar's battle chip into the computer. Perfect, just enough bytes to do the job. He couldn't wait to show off his genius. He had only partly lied to Dawn when he had told her how he had brought back the dark soul. He would have thanked that upstart Crashman, but that would have meant complementing Void. He gagged as the idea crossed his mind. He would rather than be deleted than be appreciative of Mr. Perfect.

Crashman had been Void's prototype. At least, some aspect of him. He had the navi's data assimilation abilities, but he lack Void's attitude and finesse making him more of a loose cannon. However, he was the one who inspired Mortis to consider using dark souls. It had been a good idea. After all, several navis were just lying in the Net just waiting to be reawakened.

Roll Dark Soul had been his main objective. He had been originally planning to simply delete Roll after bringing her to Dawn and replacing her with the dark soul for a time and tricking Megaman into coming to Dawn. But something had happened after he had revived her. All the navis he raised were purposely 20% weaker than they had been originally; in addition, it depended on what level navi he had decided to raise from the grave. It had been designed this way to ensure that they could always be control. When the dark soul had been revived, she had fallen apart almost instantly. Without the power of Nebula Gray and pure evil on the Net, she had simply run out of pools to draw from.

In order to save herself, she placed her power within a chip. Mortis had taken the chip and changed its code slightly after taking an unauthorized peek into Dawn's personal files to figure out how to. After creating the "Variable Sword" chip, he simply needed a way to care it out. He figured that out in the form of Saber. EXE. Dawn had wanted him to force the navi into getting scans of Roll and Megaman for her or in the very least, tricking them into coming into a trap. Mortis had a different idea; he disobeyed Dawn. He had forced Saber into doing a plan, just not hers.

Saber had not been the most willing partner, but he soon learned his place. He scoffed as he worked. What was with that pair, Tox and Saber? Both of them had been quite the unwilling pair. It took Dawn manipulating Saria and Jason in order for them to be broken. Even then, they would often look for the first chance to break away once their operators where safe. He just didn't understand. What was the need to save the people who would only use you and then throw you away? He shook his head. Navis were just too confusing.

A beep sounded as the battle chip was spit out. Mortis grabbed the chip and gazed at it as if it was the most beautiful thing in the world. He almost laughed. _'Just wait Megaman. If you liked what I did to Roll, then you're going to love what I'm going to do to you.'_

* * *

'_Stop…please. Don't hurt him,__' _the annoying bug in her head said. Mortis had promised her that she would be able to rid herself of this girl; but here she was, still here! After she was done with her favor to him, she was going to teach him just what happens when you lie to a girl. Maybe she would delete him with his own chains. That sounded poetic.

Deciding it was the only way to actually shut up her "good" side, "I wasn't planning on hurting him. I was wondering how he looked in black." Dark Roll murmured as she looked back at Megaman. The merchants had already left for the day, but their desks made great hiding spots. The blue navi had been wandering back and forth around this area for the past ten minutes. She could read his body language. He was beyond tired, only really running on the hope that he would find his beloved Roll somehow unharmed and safe. A poor dream really. Roll would never be coming back as long as she had her wish.

She would be the new Roll. Of course, there were a few problems with this. Over time, it had become harder for either form to resist the other, especially after the tinkering of that woman. Dark Roll hadn't been able to think straight after she had gone through the lighter half's programming. She had a sinking feeling that she was either being deleted from the inside or worse. Dark Roll shivered as she shook away her thoughts. She needed someone to talk to. She wanted to be around him. To confide in him.

Dark Roll punched the ground, leaving a small crater. That blasted original. Her feelings were getting in the way of things. The worst part was that she had no idea how to deal with them. For some reason, she couldn't find any kind of emotional programming inside of Roll. She couldn't turn off these feelings. It was like they were a physical part of her or something. She gasped again as the air was knocked out of her. One more point for angel in there. Despite using the Gutsman Dark Soul as a power source, she was still extremely weak for that accursed woman's meddling. Now it was getting worse. Even though she was weak, Dark Roll found herself beginning to listen to her lighter half. She couldn't squash her out anymore. What had that crazy woman done to her? Join them together?

Dark Roll's eyes widened as the thought hit her. The witch couldn't figure out Roll's code with her inside. She had never been part of the mix. She was the impurity. She was the disease that would slowly kill her. Left in this state, Dark Roll would eventually have no choice but to completely sap the original's strength and then meet her own fate.

The dark soul smirked. It was a genius plan. There was just one flaw in it. Dark Roll did have another power source. She could feel Megaman's dark side even from across the Net area. It blazed like a great bonfire in the middle of the night. If only she could get him to release it. She would have enough energy to last for years. More than enough to give her time to figure out how to bring pure evil back onto the Net.

Dark Roll sat down as she say Megaman walk dejectedly back to ACDC Area 2. _'Don't worry Megaman. We'll be back together soon. I promise.'_ Dark Roll wasn't sure whether to be scared or not by her thoughts. Why?

Because…she couldn't figure out what were her thoughts and what were the original's.

* * *

Update: Monday

Ghost: ...You know, writing DN3 really makes me want to do a Dark Roll x Dark Mega/Hub story. (I'mnotplanninganythingwhatareyoutalkingabout?) It's definitely a fun couple to toy with since it's Rock and Roll without any of there normal hindrances holding them back. I have no idea what I'd do with it, but it's definitely an idea I would mind crafting or helping someone to write.

Bass: Would I be in it?

Ghost: Sheesh, with that attitude I'm not surprised you've managed to make it into every game. Even the first one had you in it and no one knew about you then. Glory hog... Anyway, it probably would if I'm not co-authoring with someone. So, for anyone confused about what the heck is going on with the whole Mortis twisting Saber's arm thing, that's in next chapter. So yeah, in case you haven't notice yet another of Dawn's navis is betraying her (you'd think she'd figure out this problem by now...). With Crashman, it was the fact that a few lines of code were missing. With Mortis, he's more jealousy and carries quite a bit of belittlement. Dawn did originally tell him to do what you're going to see next chapter, but after he did...he concocted his own plan which is what he's implement now with the raising of Gregar and the rise of Dark Roll. What is he going to do with the Gregar chip? Hehehe...wait and see. Unfortunately, you all will have to wait 'til Monday since no one got the bonus completely right. Ghost501 logging out.

* * *

Ghost: Is he gone? *looks side to side* Sweet. So, a question for everyone. Reviews answers or PMs are fine for responding. Let's just say that a Dark Roll x Dark Hub story was being planned by me and I was trying to decide whether or not to use elements of Empress's (from MM NT Warrior) design or the traditional Dark Roll look as presented in DN3. Which look would you guys like to see? Also, this story which may or may not come into existence within the next couple of weeks may or may not have a certain someone in it. Care to guess who?


	12. Chapter 11

**Review Responses: Thanks for reviewing everyone!  
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**terratasha:** Mortis is up to shenanigans. You'll see more about his overall picture in the next day. When I made DN3, it was more of a one-sided Dark Roll x Dark Hub. That's about all I'll say though you guys should be able to piece together what that implies. Dark Roll looks like Roll but dark purple. Yeah, Dawn's relying more on fear factor and over the past few months Mortis's importance to her is diminishing. So, either way she knows that Mortis is going to be deleted one way or another. She just airing more on the side that his disobedience has been a one-time occurrence (she has been paying much attention to him during his little change of mind months). She really hasn't been noticing just what exactly he's been up to since he's been seeing for a while that he's now a fifth rate model in her eyes. And yeah, he's been up to quite of bit...**  
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**ShadowDusk94:** Yeah, I was like you just needed to put in Saber. Hey, at least the wait wasn't very long! But yeah, when I said DN3 I meant the conversation between Roll and Saber in Day 3 (I think) in this story. So yep, I've been using RollDS in this story with a more Empress like fighting style. Um...maybe...in a sense...(giant roar in the background)...I've got to go take care of that...

**Spy of Influence:** More will be revealed about what Dawn did to Dark Roll, though it was kinda hinted last chapter.

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Alright...I'm back on Twitter again...not that I tweet a lot but if you guys want to: MCGhost501

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**Contest Submission Date Extended: May 17th midnight EST** Yeah, I just realized that the 10th is a chaotic weekend for me and to be honest, I don't see the harm in extending it. So yeah.

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**Poll closed. Well, I'll keep the forum up, but please use it everyone! **

**O****n the topic of the forum, I'm just wondering something. The forum is open for mainly BN and SF writers looking for a kickstarter for ideas but then every now and again I wonder about the community I host. My question is, should I open the BN community to include SF stories. Both categories are pretty closely related and with constant BN reminders (The BN buster has been in every game) part of me has begun to wonder what why not include the sequel. I know personally I will not be writing in SF (sorry everyone who was hoping for me to become a dual but I just haven't developed the style for SF. I tried on a couple occasions but didn't feel that same push that I have felt for BN, though if anyone needs a BN writer for any reason just PM me). There's not much of a poll for this, I'm just interested in what you all think. I'll probably have a final decision on this by the end of the week.**

**Speaking of polls, There are at least 12 prompts if my memory serve correctly! There is a new poll up...and it's a DN one! Please weigh in to see what DN story's been your favorite so far! Or just leave a comment in the reviews, your choice.**

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**Finally!**

Bass: Will you just hurry up and go to the fight! I've got money on this!

Ghost: 1) I was and 2) When do you gamble?

Bass: ...

Ghost: *squints eyes* Wait...Copyman what are you doing here? You're dead in this story.

Copyman: ...um...

Ghost: Crap it, Mortis. So there is a downside to having a reviver in your cast. *Snaps fingers and Copyman disappears* It's fun being an author.

**Now the moment you guys have been waiting for...**

* * *

**Day 6 Part 1 - Dark Hub Breaks Out**

_'__**You know who's going to be back at your PC right. Now doubt if Saber was a human, he would be peeing his pants right about now. I would be too. I mean, he turned your one of your best friends and girlfriend into a dark soul navi. I would be pissed if someone ever did that to my loved one. Oh wait, it did happen. I guess I forgot for a moment that I am you. Even if your girlfriend is half-boring.**__' _ Dark Hub chided.

"I am nothing like you." Megaman growled back. His dark side had become more and more annoying as time passed. Since Roll was taken from him, he had been trying again and again to be free. He could feel Dark Hub's anger. To be honest, he wasn't sure how long it would be before he found his own way out.

_'__**How many ways do I have to spell it out for you? I am the side you wish never existed. Like it or not, we are one in the same Hub Hikari! If you would only let me take control, I could just show you just how close we really are.**__'_

"Have fun with that." Megaman walked out of ACDC Area 2 and into Area 1. His PC was close, but it would still be a little bit of a walk.

He paused for a bit as he saw Mayl's destroyed security cube. Among all the confusion, no one had gotten around to clearing the wreckage. He walked over and pushed the trash of the side of the pathway. He didn't know where it would fall, but he didn't really care at the moment. Once he was done with the garbage, he continued back home. However, as he turned he could have sworn he saw Roll. He blinked again.

Roll was gone. Megaman sighed as he continued walking; it had just turned midnight. He put a hand to his head. How had this even happened? Why Roll? Why Saber? Why anyone! Was it too much to ask for peace? Was it too much for people to simply stop trying to control the world? Was it!

_'__**Of course it is. Light comes hand in hand with darkness, Hub. There will never be a time of permanent peace in this world. The world is cruel and destructive by nature. People, unattended, will crave power and believe that their rule is better. Humanity cannot live without conflict. Do you honestly believe that the world is as simple as you think? The world is not a computer. You can't simply delete a part of it.**_

_ '__**Evil will always exist. Mankind will succumb to it, no matter how many refuse it. Darkness is in the heart of even man, woman, and child on this planet. All someone needs to do is teach them the difference between the light and the dark. Once a boundary is established, well…I don't need to tell you how many will cross the line.**__'_

"What do you know…" Hub said weakly, trying to process what his dark soul was telling him. He couldn't help it, but some part of his argument actually did make sense.

_'__**I am darkness. And despite your years of fighting evil, it seems you still have the naivety of a child! Well allow me to educate you. Last year, you were about to delete a navi who had, as a result of his plan, killed several innocent people. Not to mention, the countless other navis you've deleted in order to save the world. They were brought back as ghosts and sure they could have been backed up and reused, but what would be the point once they had already failed. Getting back to my last statement, who died and made you judge, jury, and executioner?**__'_

"People would have died!"

_'__**Oh, and they haven't already? I hate to break it to you Hub but many have already died. Maybe not physically, but many people have starred down the danger you faced and carry scars from it. Kidnappings, losing a navi at an early age, seeing the world constantly plunged into a state of peril. What kind of impressions do you think are made when everyone realizes that a fifth grader and his navi saved the world! People begin to question leadership. They begin to revolt. Don't you get it? Your existence only spurs more and more chaos. The only reason Roll's in this mess is because of you!**__'_

"No…it's…"

_'__**Don't give me that! What happened when you were unable to stop your brother over a year ago? Your failure pulled Mayl and Roll into a world of hate and cruelty. And now you've harmed them both. Roll is her greatest friend. She's been there for her for most of her life and because you failed to save her, Mayl has lost that friend! You've broken a family, Hub…**__'_

"I can still…I didn't…"

_'__**Oh but you did. Mortis has her now. I wonder what he plans to do with her?**__'_

"Stop it. Stop talking to me!" Hub said as he grabbed his head. Dark Hub was getting in his head, figuratively. He couldn't take it anymore! What was worse was that he was right. He had failed. Roll was gone. Mayl hadn't talked to anyone since Roll had disappeared with Mortis. He had broken the Sakurais. Megaman looked down at his hand to see his color slowly turning darker.

"Megaman?" he heard a distant voice. Not that it currently mattered. He just wanted this guy out of his head!

_'__**You're a failure as a protector, boyfriend, brother, and a navi! Give up, Hub! You had your chance and look what you've done with it!**__'_

Hub collapsed to the ground. It was getting harder to breathe.

"Megaman! What's wrong?" the voice said again. It sounded like Lan.

"Oh my, is he okay?" another voice. It sounded female. Hub didn't care. He could barely stand up anymore. His bodysuit was turning darker and darker by the second.

"I don't know. His energy is fine. What? I can't jack him out! It's…oh no…it's just like last year. Megaman, fight it!"

"Fight what?" a different voice asked. He didn't care; he could barely stay conscious.

"_**Me.**_" Megaman said, but it wasn't his voice. It was darker and colder than before. No, he couldn't lose control of him. He….just…Hub's eyes rolled into the back of his head. When he woke up, they were a crimson red. His body suit had turned pitch black; his icon turned white with only red lines showing the original design; his helmet disappeared, revealing his brown hair.

"It's good to be back. Now to find Saber…" Dark Hub said as he walked to the PC space, a hint of green still in his red eyes.

* * *

Hours after Roll had disappeared; Saria had walked over to Lan's house. It had taken her such a long time because both her and Saber hadn't been anywhere close to ready to face Mayl. Saber hadn't even spoken since Mortis forced him to jack out. She tried to get him to talk, but he just wouldn't. Finally, after moping around enough, Saria decided that they would have to face her friend at some time. Saber barely nodded.

A kind woman, Lan's mother, had let her into the Hikari after she had introduce herself. She had never been in his house before; it was more or less the same size of Mayl but just seemed a bit cozier since three people lived in it in contrast to one. Mrs. Hikari pointed her in the direction of Lan's room.

When she walked in the room, Mayl had been sitting on the bed completely still. Her eyes looked red and puffy, probably from crying. However, now she just seemed to star into her lap. It was almost like she hadn't yet processed that her navi had been taken from her. Lan on the other hand was jumping back between trying to comfort her and making sure that his navi was okay.

Saria felt terrible. It was because of her navi that Roll wasn't here, "Mayl? Lan?"

"Saria," Lan said surprised. He hadn't been expecting her, especially after what they had learned about Saber. Mayl, on the other hand, didn't say anything. She only looked up a Saria with sad eyes. It was like the young woman was pondering whether or not she could trust her at all. Saria couldn't blame her. Most dependent navis often worked in tandem with their NetOps. Situations like this were normally caused by both navi and human. But every so often, a navi would act out on his or her own. Just like now.

"I…I guess I should say something. Jack me into Lan's computer, Saria."

Saria did as her navi instructed. As he appeared on screen, the room looked at him, "Why did you do it? Please, Saber."

"I had no choice. They were going to hurt him if I didn't do anything!" The navi looked down at the ground. This whole situation was so bad. This wasn't supposed to be this way. It was only going to be one job and he was in the clear. He hadn't even known about the chip's power!

"Who would have hurt who?" Lan asked. Saber was a nice navi. A little rough around the edges, but he wouldn't dare raise a finger on Roll. So why did he try kidnap her?

"Jason…they have Jason."The room went still as Saber had dropped yet another bombshell.

"Who…who has dad?" Saria breathed. Come to think of it, she hadn't seen her guardian in some time. He had just taken up a new job in security, so she knew he was busy and never really made much of a fuss about it. Sometimes, she didn't even see him days on end because of the odd hours he would work. He would be sleeping while she was at school and by the time she came back, he would be at work. She just had assumed that he had been at work.

"Whoever Mortis works for. This is such a mess. Saria, you remember about a little over a week ago when I left for a couple of hours."

"I think so," the young woman said, trying to remember.

"I was answering an email that had come in Jason's PET. He had forgotten it before returning back to work and it wouldn't stop ringing. The strange thing was that it had been addressed to me. After Jason gave me to you, all my emails came to your PET. I thought it was weird so I decided to figure out who it was.

"When I got to Town Area 3, two navis jumped me. I never really got a good look at them before they stopped attacking; Mortis had called them off. He told me that Jason had had quite the unfortunate accident the other day at work, some kind accident with the elevator program. He was alive and at Beach Street Hospital." He looked back at Saria who had gasped in shock. He could see Mayl shift a little bit; Lan remained besides her, "Mortis wanted me to give Roll a battle chip. I didn't know what it would do, but I had no intentions of helping a stranger especially if I had to give some strange chip to Roll.

"I told him to do it himself and to let me go. That's when everything went south. Mortis told me that he had control of the electronics in Jason's room. He could stop his medication or worse. I didn't want to believe him, but he told me that he would be more than happy to demonstrate. I didn't want to take a chance, so I told him I would do it. After they dumped me in Town Area 2, I took a trip out to the Network. The minute I stepped into the computer in Jason's room, one of the nurses came in wondering why one of the machines stopped working. I ran out the room soon after.

"When I got home, there was another email on the PET. Mortis told me I had two days to give Roll the chip. He also said that if I told anyone or even tried to see Jason again, I wouldn't like the results. I didn't know what it would do, but I couldn't give Roll that chip. I threw it in the Undernet and told him I did the job. When I saw Roll on the subway, she was talking about trying some sword chips out, so I gave here one of my copies of Variable Sword. I thought that would have been the end of it and Jason would come home soon, but then last night…"

"He told you to get Roll." Lan said, connecting the dots.

Saber nodded, "He told me that if I didn't bring her, he would make sure Jason didn't survive the night. He just wanted her for five minutes; he even said I could stay to make sure she was safe. He would let her go and it would be the end of it.

"But when I grabbed her, she woke up early before I and ran off. I was actually happy she did, but then he sent Beastman to track her down. I walking around trying to figure things out when I ran into you and the rest is history. I'm sorry. I'm so sorry, everyone. I was just trying to save him."

"Is dad still in the hospital?" Saria asked quietly.

"He should be. I…I haven't checked." He said solemnly.

Lan clenched his fists. This madness had stop. First someone controls both him and Saria, then breaks into SciLab, and now had stolen a father in order to use as leverage and corrupted an innocent navi. Lan had a sinking feeling that this CHAOS was a real threat and to make matters worse, it was knocking at their door.

Movement tore his attention away from his thoughts as Mayl got up and walked over to Saria. Lan merely smiled as she pulled the girl into a hug. Mayl, other than a few select cases, had never been one to hold much of a grudge. But, Lan could understand why Saber acted in the way he did. He was only trying to help his original NetOp. If anyone was to blame, it was Mortis.

Mayl looked over at the computer screen with red rimmed eyes, "It wasn't your fault." And that was all that needed to be said. At that moment, there wasn't anything else that could have been said. However, a Hikari's luck never was permanent. Lan's PET started blaring. As he checked it, it started showing something wrong with Megaman. The problem was that he couldn't tell what it was. His hit points weren't decreasing and there was no bug in the Navi Cust or his programming from the looks of things. So what was the matter?

"Megaman?" Lan asked. He merely looked in fear as his brother dropped to the ground as started gasping, "Megaman! What's wrong?"

"Oh my, is he okay?" Mayl asked as she looked over his shoulder. Megaman's bodysuit was beginning to look darker.

"I don't know. His energy is fine." Lan said as he pressed the jack out button. A sudden realization hit Lan when the command wasn't working, "What? I can't jack him out! It's…oh no…. Megaman, fight it!" Lan said as Mayl's eyes growing big and she too was beginning to piece it all together.

"Fight what?" Saria asked, completely confused.

"**Me.**" Megaman said, but it wasn't his voice. It was different. Megaman's eyes rolled into the back of his head. When he woke up, they were a crimson red. His body suit had turned pitch black; his icon turned white with only red lines showing the original design.

"It's good to be back. Now to find Saber…" Dark Mega said as he walked to the PC space.

"Saria, jack Saber out now!" Lan said quickly.

"What's going on, Lan?" the red haired teen asked.

"Megaman's lost it. It seems like Roll's not the only one with dark soul issues. If you don't jack Saber out now, I don't think Megaman will let him get away." Saria quickly went for the button on her PET to get her navi to safety when something stopped her.

Saber.

"Don't push that button, Saria!" the navi said with a large amount of finality in his voice.

"But he'll…" Saria started, but was cut off.

"He's this way because of me. Besides, he'll merely break the security cube on your PET. They're not that hard to destroy if you're strong enough. But…I do have a request," he paused, "Nothing against you Saria, but I need Lan to operate me. He knows Megaman better than anyone else. Plus he's got the most experience against him. We need to fight him to calm him down. We don't have Roll and she would be one of our only sure fire ways to shut him down. Please. I've got to fix this."

He couldn't believe it. He was actually pleading to fight someone who had all intentions to delete him. Maybe he should have Dr. Hikari look at his reasoning programming. Saria, though he could see doubt in her eyes, typed in a few commands into her PET. She sighed to herself before looking at the brunette, "He's your Link Navi now. Please, don't lose him."

"I won't. I promise."

"Lan, are you sure about this?" Mayl whispered.

"It's okay; I've fought him before when he was like this. Besides, I'm the only one here who can ever fight him. I…I just need to do it again."

Lan switched to a new chip folder he had been working on, "Saber. The minute he steps into this room, we've got to hit him. You don't want to see what he fights like when he's like this."

"That's comforting…" Saber grumbled as he readied him.

One…two…three…four…

The sound of a navi jack in rang in the quiet room.

"Saber! Battle Routine, Set!" Lan said.

"Execute!"

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Instead of a navi, it was a small ball that had jacked in. Lan recognized it quickly, "Reflect 3! Sanctuary! Download!" The panels in the PC space turned bright yellow as Saber pulled a blue mettuar helmet in front of him. Smoke filled the room and the blast reflected of the head gear. It didn't hit him, but at least Saber had avoided damage. As he put down the guard, he immediately jumped backwards.

As the sword cleared, Saber saw Dark Hub with a dark blade standing next to a small crater he had just made. The dark navi stared at him with dark red eyes, "Well, I guess I wouldn't be fair if I didn't delete you. Plus, it'll really show my other half just what he's capable of," he growled.

"Megaman no!" Lan yelled.

"It's not what you think!" Mayl said, trying herself to get Hub to listen to her. She felt Saria grip her hand out of fear. Mayl then remembered that she must have just seen a dark soul navi for the first time when she saw Roll. Also, she had never seen a navi look so angry before. Since Megaman didn't possess any sort of emotional programming, all his feelings were so human. It must have been extremely startling for her. Then again, she had never seen Megaman so angry either. Ever last year's outburst didn't seem to compare to this.

"So, you've lied to them too! Interesting! Do you have any limits to how far you'll go? Good thing I don't!" he roared as he charged again.

"Long Blade! Download!" Saber barely parried away the attack. The navi came back again. Saber, better prepared this time, blocked the attack and was able to push Dark Mega backwards. The momentum caused the navi to stumble backwards, leaving him open for a slash from Saber.

"I'm impressed. I didn't think good two shoes like you had it in you! She was your sister. And you betrayed her! Dark Lance! Dark Cannon!" Dark Hub yelled. Saber felt himself get jabbed by several piece of bamboo and he was flung into the air. The black navi targeted him and fired.

"Saber!" Saria yelled. The blue and green navi got back up to his feet. He wasn't going to let it end this way.

"I know you're ticked at me Megaman! But I had no choice! Mortis would have killed Jaosn if I didn't! I didn't know what that chip was going to do to Roll! I didn't even know I had it on me! I'm sorry! But I can't change it and neither can you! Face the facts! While you're wasting time fighting me, she's out there alone and lost! Are you ready to find her or are you too distraught to realize what a mistake you're making right now!" Saber said.

"Shut up..." he growled, holding his head. Hub was reacting to what this little whelp was saying. And he was actually being quite annoying about it.

"Is that what she would have wanted? Or is it what you want? I never pegged you as selfish, especially when it came to Roll's well being! I guess I was wrong…"

"**Quiet! You know nothing!** Program Advance! Triple Dark Cannon! Dark Giga Cannon!"

"That's not possible! There's no program advance for dark chips!" Lan said as he put in another Reflect 3 chip.

Saber had barely brought up the guard in time. The blast shattered the mettuar's helmet and he was flung backward. However, Dark Hub hadn't expected a reflect chip to be used and he too was hit.

Saber got back up slowly, breathing hard. If it hadn't been for the holy panels and that chip, he was sure that blast would have deleted him. However, he could see a change in Dark Hub. It seemed as if his speech had gotten to Megaman after all. Some color had return to his emblem and the dark soul was gripping his head. His helmet had been cracked and fallen off after that last hit.

"Sorry Hub…" he heard Lan whisper. Before he could ask, Lan put in another chip, "Drill Arm 3! Area Steal! Holy Dream! Attack +30! Download!"

Saber hand turned into a drill and he ran forward.

"Dark Drill!" Dark Hub countered, his own weapon taking the form of a drill.

As the two drills clashed, Saber surged forward past Dark Hub causing him to over step and trip. Wasting no time, Saber held out his hand which changed into a buster and fired several blue orbs at the navi. As the holy panels faded from the field, Megaman was left on the ground groaning. The charged light attack had managed to knock out the unsuspecting Dark Hub. His normal color had returned. Deciding to play it safe, Saber stayed back and allowed Lan to jack out the exhausted navi and put him into sleep mode. Once Megaman had been secured, he too jacked out.

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Update: Friday

Ghost: Special thanks to BalanceM88 for info about battle chip info! (This was so long ago, I bet you barely remember). Though I do detest some parts of the Rockman anime, this has to be one of my favorite scenes from the bleh season which was Stream... Skip to time 5:32. ( watch?v=WsvLlotuHfw)...now you see where that random bit of this fight came from.

Bass: *Sigh*...I thought Gav told you to stop watching that thing while your writing DN.

Ghost: Typically I don't. Just couldn't help myself this time. That's actually one of my all time favorite fight scenes from the anime and Holy Dream was already going to be used. Ghost501 logging out.


	13. Chapter 12

**Review Responses: Thanks for reviewing!**

**terratasha: **I actually think you've got the best jump out of everyone since you technically can see the chapter the day before everyone else. Except for last night cause I was sick and wasn't going to be updated at midnight. XD Anypanel, I'm glad you thought that one was good! Hmm...that's a good question. I would ask him, but he doesn't like me very much. He actually doesn't really like anyone but Dark Roll. To answer your questions, 1) Yeah, Saria saw Dark Roll back during the Emotion Scrambler incident and 2) He sometimes doesn't wear a helmet. In his debut in DN2 he took it off. In Hub's head, he's normally head gear less. In last chapter, I just decided to let him have it on. No special reasoning really.

**BalanceM88: **Well, now you finally see the end results of that conversation! Yeah, I'll admit that the anime does have its memorable moments, but I just think the games are better constructed. Thanks! Yeah, tends to be a trend with link navis having crosses. Hehe...well you're just going to have to wait 'til Day 7 to figure out that bit aren't ya? Glad to hear!

**ShadowDusk94: **Hooray for new people to take their abilities from at a later date! Hahaha...stop looking at me like that Saber. Aren't you busy? Huh...I didn't think of the Plantman incident, but yet I referenced both Plantman and Mamarou in this story. *looks up to the sky* Am I being haunted? 'Cause that'd be ironic. Wait...the cybeast is in the studio? Ah crap? Another thing to worry about? As if it wasn't bad enough with *spoiler spoiler spoiler* and then Bass disappeared another hour ago. Don't know where he *hears a giant screech*. Sigh...glad you're enjoying the story. Now if you excuse me, I have to go ride Bass of a Beast-Out. *off screen* NO! NO MANGA POWERS!

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**Favoriters: XWF1000**

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**Contest Deadline May 17th midnight!**

**Community now expanded to hold Starforce Stories. PM me if you would like to help collect stories for the community.**

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**While I'm thinking about it, if this story doesn't give you a Dark Hub x Dark Roll fix, then well stick around. Something may or may not pop up within the next month or month and a half...Onto the story!**

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**Day 6 Part 2 - Understanding the Bad**

"Unbelievable. I've never seen anything quite like this before in my life." Dr. Hikari said as he looked through Megaman's code. It wasn't corrupted; it was just changing.

"What's wrong with him, dad?" Lan asked. After the fight, he had spent a little time at home before needing to return to the lab to finish up some reports. Mayl had decided to go with Saria back to her house. She had the unfortunate job of trying to convince her friend not to jeopardize her guardian's health by seeing him. Lan had sent Chaud an email to see if he could go ahead and check it out. Saria had told Saber to stay with Lan just in case Megaman woke up…well not as Megaman.

So far, they had been lucky. Megaman had not stirred since he fell unconscious. After pulling up his systems, Dr. Hikari had had a hard time finding anything wrong with his son. It had taken him almost an hour to finally realize where the issue was. To be fair to him, it was the last place he would look in the first place. Megaman's digitized soul. In the place of his emotion programming, laid his son's very being. Dr. Hikari didn't care to remember how long it took for him to actually convert his son's soul into actually code.

He had almost destroyed Hub originally. All it took was one miscalculation. The doctor shivered slightly as he pushed aside that memory. He had been exhausted and under the dwindling time schedule of his own son's death when he had achieved the impossible. Now, he had to see just what was wrong with his son's soul. Being a digital program now, it was easier to corrupt. Far from easy simply due to the complex security measures he took in safeguarding it—which was often the reason why Lan's PET was custom made. Even when the boy had started to buy the devices from his friend in Cyber City, Dr. Hikari had always had a hand in customizing his son's PET.

No mere programmer could simply just go in a change Megaman's soul data, especially not without Hub knowing. So how had this happened? Hub had said nothing to him about this. But Dr. Hikari knew things like this weren't just spontaneous. This originated from somewhere and he had to find out where.

"Lan, did something happen to Hub recently?" the doctor asked.

"Just him coming into my PC completely out of his mind this morning," Lan said back, careful of his words. Hub hadn't exactly been proud of himself when he realized his dark soul had returned. He had Lan promise him that he wouldn't tell his father unless it was an absolute emergency.

"Lan, I know you're not telling me something. Things like this don't just happen, especially at the degree you've just told me. I'm not going to sugar coat this, I don't know what's wrong your brother. But I know this. If we don't do anything now, this will only get worse. What happened to Hub earlier will only happen again. Eventually, simply knocking him out won't be enough."

Lan gaped at his father. Had he just implied that if this continued, Hub would have to be…deleted? Lan looked back at his brother's coding. He couldn't imagine much of a life without him. Back when he was preparing to go the sixth grade after defeating Alpha, he had barely gotten back control of his life when his brother sacrificed himself for him. Now, bouncing back completely would be almost impossible.

Lan looked back at his father. This was an emergency, "A little over a year ago, Hub's dark soul kicked up again. But it was different. It didn't want destruction; it was focused. After Crashman had killed those scientists, Hub had gone almost completely silent. He barely talked to me until Crashman broke our security cube and challenged him. During the fight, Hub just lost it. He became Dark Mega again. The weird thing was that as he became a dark soul, he became independent.

"I lost control of him. He was operating himself, dad. Once Crashman left, he calmed down and returned back to normal. Then sometime last week, we ran into Crashman again. Only this time it was actually Copyman. He played Hub and then next thing he knew a dark soul was attacking him with no regards for life. This morning though, Hub just went crazy. I think it's been getting to him because he's been looking kinda tired all the time. I didn't want to pry, but it all just seemed…"

"Unlike him," Dr. Hikari finished. This was more disturbing than he thought. The element of a dark soul added a lot of complications to the problem, but it helped to clear a few things up.

"So, did that help?" his son asked worriedly as his father continued to peel through the lines.

"Quite," the doctor said after remaining silent for a while, "See right now, hmm…how to put this? There is more than one Hub."

"What? More than one Hub?"

"That's the only way to describe this. This dark soul is far more intrusive than the others have been. Normally, a dark chip would have corrupted a navi's emotions programming, which causes them to become highly irritable. Then is takes out several other measures that causes a navi's focus to become skewed. It no longer wants to help his or her operator. Instead, it seeks power and chaos. Once the loyalty factor is gone, a dark soul navi is essentially independent. The only problem is that many of the dark soul navis were never meant to be independent navis. They needed humans to help them operate at full capacity.

"Now, look at Hub's code. On the left is Hub's original coding; on the right is current one. See how that code is changing. That is Dark Hub trying to take over by constantly adapting itself to Hub's stagnant code. The problem is that by adapting itself, it is also assimilating itself. In other words, instead of one taking over the other…"

"They're joining together."

"Yes. This is the source of Hub's problems. There are two souls: one is trying to swallow the other, but in the end is only merging back into him. I imagine that under all the stress, the Dark Hub was allowed to actually break away from the original code. Megaman's body only allows for one soul; so his coding is forcing the two to merge back together. The problem is that these two similar identities are _very_ different."

"So when Hub loses control, it's just Dark Hub trying to stay alive as a separate person."

"Yes. When I digitized your brother, I never imagined that navis could be corrupted so violently. When Nebula Gray was created, I began to think back on what I did to Hub. Even as a navi, he's still human. He carries darkness that lies in all of humanity. The difference is that this darkness can manifest itself and break away a lot easier than it can if he was flesh and blood."

"Wait, so Hub has always had a dark soul?"

"Since the very beginning. The dark chip just made it easier to manifest itself. After its defeat as Dark Mega, Dark Hub must have just been waiting for the chance to take advantage of the situation. When those men and women died, it saw its chance. Luckily, the effects of him being here are beginning to come to an end. When the codes merge back together, Hub should be able to take complete control back. As long as we keep him under surveillance for a couple of days, he should return to normal. As long as he puts away the guilt that is."

"Huh?"

"The event that kick started this happened a year ago, Lan. Hub must have felt guilty over the return of his dark soul, more than likely because it was something I never talked to him about. The guilty helps to keep it awake. Dark Hub was probably feeding off his torment for this whole year. It's easier to guilty trip your foe to stay alive than to go back to sleep and try again later."

"I see." Lan said as he looked back in his PET. Saber had actually fallen asleep over the past hour. He deserved it; it wasn't every day you went head to head with one of the most powerful navis on the Net, "But he never felt that way after Dark Mega disappeared."

"That's what he wanted you to think. After that party we had when you two defeat Wily for the last time, Hub had me check over his data at least three times in two weeks to make sure that both Gregar and Dark Mega had been erased from his code. Dark Hub had probably been lulled back to sleep after Colonel had ripped out the Cybeast spirit from his body."

"But none of that was his fault. He had been forced into those situations." Lan said, not understanding.

"Hub still felt responsible for the things that happened. And now, the same events are reoccurring," Yuichiro said sadly.

"So we just wait?" Lan asked looking back at the screen.

"We'll have to. I'll talk to him when he wakes up. In the meantime, we just keep an eye on him. Hopefully, this whole thing will resolve itself within a week."

"I hope so, dad." Lan said as he say his dad began to take off the sleep program. _'Please. Be okay, Hub.'_

* * *

Mortis stopped as his trusty guide came to a halt in front of the link into SciLab. He had found the navi snooping around ACDC Area. She seemed to be almost delighted for some odd reason, "He's in there. Unless you have something to break past several guard navis and firewalls, I suggest waiting for him to come out before we jump him," the dark soul said.

"You're probably right. Besides, it's not like I'm in a hurry! Dawn will be sending Void after me in hours. I've been gone for too long. Void will find me and he will delete me." Mortis growled.

"Not my problem; you're the one who messed up," Dark Roll snapped.

"Watch your tongue!"

"I don't know how!"

"You insubordinate little navi! I… I will…!"

"You will what! Delete me and you'll invoke the wrath of the most powerful net navi in the world! Give me a bug? That's just slow me down. Though I'm sure Mega will love the sickly like act I could put on. Don't you get it? All situations end with your deletion whether by Megaman's hand or Void's." she smirked.

"Don't remind me you little…" Mortis stopped. She was his bargaining chip. The chained navi smiled as he walked up to the purplish navi. He had noticed that she had started taking a more passive side about destroying Megaman, but that would all change. After all, soon she wouldn't have a choice. And neither would he. Mortis opened up a window and turned on another program that he had embedded into the Variable Sword code, just some extra insurance.

"What that hell are you looking at?" she sneered.

"Nothing at all, my dear. Just thinking about how beautiful you look tonight."

"You think I look beautiful? Thanks…Mega." Dark Roll's eyes went blank for a second before they were replaced with a deep purple. Mortis's smile widened. It was a shame that Dawn's changed mind control program couldn't fit into Megaman's chip. Ah well. As long as he had Roll, he would be safe. That was until he had control of Megaman. Then, purple was going to become his least favorite color on the spectrum.

"Come my friend. We have much to prepare for." He said as Dark Roll obediently followed without a single word.

* * *

As the chained navi laughed, he failed to see a navi in the distance staring at him. Most people didn't notice him. He was so rarely on the Overnet that he should have been considered a celebrity. Bass mere grimaced as he watched the scene before him. Things were definitely stirring. He gazed out into the distance where his rival was hiding. He hadn't found the newcomer either. Bass clenched his fists. A year of waiting and he would be sentenced to even more. But when the time was right, he would crush all opposition before him. He would finally show Megaman that these "bonds" were nothing but children's stories. He would destroy this new navi who attempted to wound his pride in the Undernet.

And above all, he would claim his rightful spot as the most powerful navi on the Net. Bass smirked as he floated away, searching for anyone who would be worth of his power. _'Stay in the game, Megaman. I want to be the one who deletes you.'_

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Update: Monday

Bass: WHAHAHAHAHA! *currently wrapped up in a body cast*

Ghost: Geez...you show up for a paragraph and all of a sudden this is the most important thing to you. Hmm...think another Bass deletion needs to be made?

Bass: You can't kill me! You can rip Cybeasts out of me, but you can't kill me!

Ghost: _Life and Death_. _The End of Net Society_. I hear three is a lucky number.

Bass: You little!

Ghost: Blah blah blah. Save it for another story. So yeah, Dark Hub is like a come and go spirit in this series. It doesn't take much for him to break from the code if enough pressure is there and me being a tragedy/adventure writer, this isn't to hard for me to warp. But yeah, seems like Mortis is trying to put his final pieces into checkmate isn't he? Anyway, that's it for this week. Next week is the second to last day featuring: Void, Dark Roll, Mortis, Bass, and one more! Let's just see how this goes.


	14. Chapter 13

**Review Response:**

**ShadowDusk94:** Yeah, I think this concept is becoming a bit more common among some of us BN writers. So far, both True-inTha-Blue and I have been the ones that have really harped on this as far as I know of. Well...um...I guess it's time to read this chapter then. You sir have clearly not read the manga. Bass beasts out with Falzar. Imagine fighting that in BN6. I get the reference but that was actually more of a BN manga reference. Bass in the manga is almost obsessed with being the sole deleter of Megaman so much that he actually saves him at one point just so that he can preserve the right to kill him. Though nice Solo reference though.

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**May 17...contest. Choose favorite DN on profile pole. That is all...**

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**In other news, if anyone (highly doubt it but just in case) has noticed an MCGhost501 account floating around since around Friday night, that was my bad. I was trying to connect my twitter to FFN and it ended up making a new account. This account will still and always will be my main account and I will not be using the other account. In other news, why isn't there a delete account option in FFN? No, I'm not deleting this account. I just want to get rid of the copy.**

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**Day 7 Part 1 - Heart Attack**

Mayl walked in her house completely drained. She had barely convinced Saria to let the officials deal with her father's situation. Chaud had sent back an email by the time that the girls had gotten to Saria's house. Protoman had already been sent to check out her father's room and make sure that he was safe. Late in the evening, Protoman had confirmed that there had been a data left under one the panels that would send a signal if someone stepped on it. Luckily, he hadn't. He apologized for such a delay; he had checked every signal piece of machinery in the room thoroughly to make sure there was no chance of Mortis having the upper hand on Saber anymore.

Saria had left soon afterwards to go see her father, leaving Mayl to walk back home. When she called Lan, he told her that he would be back as soon as Megaman woke up. She was glad that Hub was alright; the last thing they needed was for him to turn into a dark soul too. However, as the relief came over her, the stress and fear came running back. Roll was still out there by herself with no one to help her.

Mayl walked up the stairs like a lifeless person. She felt like one too. She didn't feel any anger towards Saber. No, if anything she was angry at Mortis. Why would anyone want to do this to Roll? She didn't understand. Mayl let out a breath._ 'Roll, where are you?'_ The pink navi had been with her ever since she was five. She had helped her out when she had to deal with her father. She had been her go to "girl" whenever Yai wasn't available to talk. Roll was her best friend. Without her, Mayl just felt deader on the inside; some part of her screamed. She was missing a piece of herself. Mayl collapsed on her bed.

As she slipped into unconsciousness, she just wished that this whole situation just never happened. Maybe this whole day was just a dream and she would wake up with Roll's sleepy voice telling her to get up. Megaman would be completely fine. It was going to be a Sunday in about an hour; so she would just spend most of the day catching up on homework and studies. Later on Lan might come over and they would talk for a while, maybe set up a date or something. In the meantime, Roll and Megaman would be sitting in her PC with their helmets off doing the same thing or maybe playing tag. Heck, she might even fine Saber in there just because he was bored and had nothing better to do. Mortis would have barely entered their lives. She just wanted things to go back to normal.

Of course, her wish was never granted.

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_'Show time!'_ Mortis said as he scanned ACDC Area 1. Megaman had just come back, but it appeared that he was heading towards the Sakurai comp instead of his own. Maybe he felt some need to go back in case Roll had come back home. Well, she was coming home. Just not in the way he remembered.

"Are you ready, my dear?" he asked.

"Of course, Mega," Dark Roll replied. She shook her head for a moment, her blank eyes being replaced by purple.

Mortis cracked a sadistic smile. She still thought that he was Megaman. Good, as long as things stayed that way, this would be no problem at all. Now, it was time to destroy blue boy once and for all. He was over trying to impress Dawn. Now, he just wanted to bring her plans to a screeching halt. She had threatened his life. She never appreciated what he did for her precious Void. Well, now she was going to pay for her abuse. And when she found out what he did, there would be nothing but chaos.

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Lan didn't bother yelling for Mayl when he realized the house was completely dark. After Megaman and his dad had talked, Saber had gone back to Saria. On the way back home, he and Megaman decided that they should at least guard Mayl's comp while there was no security cube outside of it, especially since after all this Mayl may trust the device ever again. Lan flicked on a light and went upstairs to check on Mayl.

The poor girl lay sprawled out on her bed, asleep. Lan smiled as he brushed some hair out of her face. How'd the heck did she master being beautiful while completely exhausted. Unfortunately for Mayl, she hadn't gone far off into the realm of dream world and woke up.

"Hey," she said sleepily.

"Oh sorry for waking you up, just head back to sleep okay?" He said softly.

"Okay," she said not arguing. Her dreams seemed to be only way she could escape this nightmare anyway.

"Lan…" Megaman said quietly, but his PET's volume had been turned up to its max.

"Could you turn that down?" Lan asked after his brother had locked the volume commands from him.

"Not really. We've got a problem." He whispered, not that it sounded like he was shouting or anything from Lan's end.

"What kind of problem?" Lan asked.

"Dark Arrow!"

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Sleep didn't have much of a hold on Mayl once she heard her navi. The girl sprung up from her place on the bed and immediately got in the chair in front of her computer. Her heart plummeted. On the screen stood three figures, Megaman, Mortis, and Roll. Or, Dark Roll rather. The purplish navi smiled widely as she fired more and more arrows at Megaman. The red head girl couldn't figure out what had become of her best friend. She seemed like an entirely different person. Had Mayl really lost her?

"What's the matter? You afraid of trying to beat up a girl?" the dark navi sneered as Megaman continued to dodge. She sounded so cold. Her normal warmth gone.

"Roll! Stop! You have to still be there!" Mayl cried. She couldn't lose her now, not after everything they had been through.

"Stay out of this operator! This is between them," Mortis said with a smirk, "So sad though. And here I thought that these two had something special."

"You're sick, Mortis." Lan growled as his brother tried to use his Megabuster to shoot the incoming arrows. He had a bad feeling he knew how this battle was going to go. Megaman wouldn't dare harm Roll even as a dark soul and Mortis knew that.

"Roll! You've got to snap out of this!" Megaman pleaded.

"I'm afraid this is not the Roll you're looking for. Though I'm surprised you haven't noticed anything different about her. Don't tell me you've become bored of her already, Megaman."

"Shut up!" Hub growled. He was trying his best to stay calm, but he was beginning to hear Dark Hub in the back of his head again. And this time, Hub wasn't to entirely sure he didn't want him to take over.

Mayl stared hard at her navi. It was obvious that Mortis hadn't been talking about the dark soul transformation. So what else had changed about her? Her emblem was still darkened. Her eyes…her eyes! They were completely blank! Mayl resisted the urge to cry for her navi. Roll needed her to think through this. Blank eyes…what did that mean! Mayl's tired eyes widened as she remembered.

When Megaman and Saber had been controlled a year ago, they had lost their irises as a result of that program's power. It caused them to become obedient to the NetOp's every wishes. But she was Roll's NetOp. Wouldn't Roll have to listen to her? But she hadn't responded earlier. Unless…

"You rewrote it. You rewrote the program that the Voice used on Megaman and Lan didn't you?" Mayl shot accusingly.

"I see who carries the brains of the outfit. Close, but no cigar. I merged the two together. No more need for that pesky Control Program. But yet, all the fun of the originals too. I wonder whose voice she's listening to now. It could be yours or her dear Megaman's. Either way, she's absolutely oblivious! But still responds to my very order," Mortis laughed.

"I swear I'll delete you." Megaman said, his eyes darkening. _**'Come on, just a little**_** more!'**

"I'd like to see you try. But between you and me, I don't think you'll get very far," Dark Roll smirked back, her eyes once again switching to purple.

"I have no doubt he will, but first things first. A few ground rules. One," he threw a piece of chip data at Megaman, "That's your bargaining card for getting your precious Roll back. Though, I don't imagine that you'll be any saner taking it."

"Do you honestly think I'm stupid enough to try any of your chips!" he growled back, picking up the chip data. He had half a mind to delete it, but something told him that Mortis was serious about it being a bargaining card. Though why he was giving it to him now, he had no idea. The data left his hand and stored itself in the PET's chip pack, where all the extras went.

"Second rule. Well, more like a hypothesis really. What if I told you that if you cannot find a way to delete me in five minutes, I will terminate the program controlling poor little Roll? If that happens, well I'm afraid that the dark soul in her may just fall apart. She seemed a lot weaker after my ex-master had ripped through her code. I doubt she would last very long if several of her core programs shut down as a result of my meddling."

"You wouldn't," Lan said.

"You seem not to understand my situation Hikari. I'm as good as deleted anyway. Either your navi deletes me here or Void comes after me. I've got nothing left to live for. I'll admit it's not the way I wanted my plan to work out, but in the end I'll still have the last laugh. You will use that chip, Megaman. Do you want to know why?" Megaman, and everyone else in the room, was certain that they didn't want to know, "Because, your sweet Roll wants you to. Sick 'em."

"Sorry Mega, but I'm afraid you're going to be taking that chip now. But don't worry, I'll make sure you don't go too far away from me. It's not that bad, you know. It's a little weird for the first day, but it everything rights itself in the end," the navi said as she stalked closer. In the meantime, no one noticed that Mayl's PET in the background had somehow started to relay signals to Roll. A single window opened up and a field was highlighted. Mortis smirked as he pressed it in his window behind his back.

"Roll, I know you're in there. You don't have to listen to him. Mortis is the one talking to you, not us!" Megaman said, holding both of his hands up. He was trying not to show himself as a threat. The only problem was that Mortis still knew he was one. He walked closer to her as she seemed to back off for a moment.

"Meg…Megaman?" she asked, some of her old personality beginning to come back.

"Why Roll, I believe the navi in front of you deleted your dear, Megaman, not too long ago. A single buster shot through his core at close range. Isn't that one of the more painful ways for a navi to go. And just when he was so close to joining you too. Maybe you should thank him." Mortis sneered. He was beyond compassion for anyone. He had been created to raise navis from the dead and lead them to their own deletion. Now…the idea of causing a ghost revolt seemed very interesting.

"Deleted…Mega?" the purple navi's eyes widened for a second. Suddenly the progress made was gone. Roll's purple eyes stared at Megaman with anger. But what drove the fear home was when her body suit changed into dark blue. The burner which were normally a metal color turned into a deep black. The flames that covered her antennae blazed with purple fury, "No…Hub…**You're going to pay for that!** Flame Arrow! Lava Stage!" Roll's hand switched to her bow and she fired.

The ground underneath them began to heat up, "Roll, please! I'm right here! Don't listen to him!"

"Charge Cross!" Lan said as Megaman once again started knocking out arrows and his body suit changed into that of a Charge Cross. Mayl could see the resentment and hesitance in the blue navi's eyes. He didn't want to fight her. But…the option to not fight was disappearing fast. At least, the fire element cross would save him from any damage from the field.

Mayl squeezed her eyes shut. She couldn't watch this.

"**SHUT UP! You took him away from me!** Lava Tower! Dark Plus!" she hovered her hand above the ground and the lava rose up and started spewing.

"Life Aura!" the yellow barrier disappeared as quickly as it had been activated. However, it had done its work allowing Megaman to be unscathed by the attack.

"**Die! Die! DIE!** Dark Meteor!"

"Program Advance! Triple Spreader! Hyper Burst!" Megaman fired the multi-shot weapon, destroying the incoming attack. The rocks showered the field as both navis stared at each other.

"Roll, please! You can stop this! This isn't you! Mortis is lying through his teeth!"

"But…why would I lie to you Roll? I'm only looking out for you." the chained navi asked, switching to a different merge.

"Leave Mayl out of this!" she growled. Her Glacia Merge changed to a orange color; the scarf changed to a dark green color, "Ice Stage! Ice…!" the navi faltered and fell to the ground. Her purple color returning back to her.

Mayl opened her eyes when her PET was beginning to ring. As she grabbed the device, she noticed that the merges had been locked out from Roll. The pink navi had never had a problem switching between them before. She just couldn't switch back to a previously used one until after the battle was over. For whatever the reason, Mayl was at least happy that Roll's merges couldn't be used for the time being.

"What?" Mortis growled, "You useless navi! Get up! That's an order!"

Dark Roll got back up. Despite not taking any damage yet, her actions seemed slower and sluggish. As she drew her bow, Megaman could have sworn that he noticed her body suit light up. The navi sneered as a Dark Sword appeared in place of her hand and she charged.

"Lan…you guys…you have too…" Mayl couldn't bring herself to finish the sentence. She couldn't imagine Megaman actually fighting Roll or even being in a situation that required Roll to be hurt, actually hurt. Not tournament, but life or death.

Finally, after the angered Roll was one five feet away, Megaman hung his head, "I know," the blue navi jumped back and prepared to fight the one person who he would never raise a finger against.

"Battle Routine, Set!"

"Execute…"

* * *

"Sit still!" she growled as Megaman continued to dodge her swipes. After a few seconds of this, the navi jumped back, "Dark Arrow!"

Megaman leapt out of the way as more arrows were launched his way. There would be no way to save Roll other than knocking her out, but he had no knowledge of what kind of state she was in. Would a cannon knock her out or delete her? The suspected bug drove his fear of hitting her even harder. He angrily eyed the chained navi off to the side who seemed to use facing his own mortality as an excuse to destroy the lives of the people around him.

"Vulcan 1! Download!" a small machine gun replaced his hand and Megaman took aim. The dark navi stared at him for a second; it was almost as if she was wondering if he was actually going to shoot. For a second, Megaman could have sworn that she was about to cry. He tried to fire, but he couldn't. Not at her.

The dark soul smirked at him, "Just what I thought." Megaman had a bad feeling he knew what was coming, "Dark Flash!" The purple navi raced towards him. Megaman barely had time to try and guard himself as he was smacked with Roll's antennas.

_'__**Release me! The only thing you'll do is get us deleted! I'll do what you can't!**__'_ Dark Hub yelled. Hub closed his eyes and tried to block him out. He couldn't risk the dark soul having another chance to wreak havoc upon the Net. Saber had shut him down last time, but it would be a lot harder if he got out now.

Megaman slowly got back up to his feet and switched back to his buster.

Lan growled in frustration. They needed a plan to avoid accidentally deleting Roll. How many minutes did they have left? He looked over to see Mayl's eyes open again and glued to the screen in front of her. He almost slammed his fist on the desk. If only there was a way to hit Mortis without hurting Roll! Wait…that was it!

"Boomer 3! Download!" a small boomerang whizzed around the field, completely missing Roll, but hitting a different target. The small weapon collided with Mortis, causing the navi to fall backwards. Megaman smirked. Of course, his brother was a genius.

"Erase Cross! Blinder! Circle Gun! Download!" the field was blasted with a bright light, leaving Mortis and Dark Roll completely disoriented. Megaman, fitted in his Erase Cross, activated the Circle Gun, locked onto Mortis, and fired. Leaving Dark Roll to her own confusion, the purple navi found himself running at the chained navi.

"Elec Cross! Program Advance! Destroy Pulse 3! Trumpy! Discord! Sonic Blast!" Megaman's bodysuit switched to Elec Cross and his hand turned into an amplifier. Just as Mortis was beginning to gain his vision, Megaman fired another round at him. Mortis held his head as the noise hit his ears, this was worse than anything he had ever heard in his life. He could feel his data beginning to reorganize himself. Had he been given a bug? Before Megaman could fire another attack, Dark Roll fired again…at Mortis! Megaman turned around to see the navi's purple eyes replaced with green ones.

"ROLL!" Mayl screamed, happy to see her navi's warm eyes again.

"The program advance must have scrambled those programs he put in her!" Lan realized.

"You…you should still be under my control! You can't be free of the darkness!" Mortis growled.

"You know, it's not nice to mess with a girl's head. A little help, Mayl?" Roll said coyly, purposely ignoring Mortis's remark.

"Right! Recover 300!" As Mayl looked through her folder, she noticed that the Merge menu had reactivated. This time however, there was a new option. Bug Unison? Had she not seen Mortis getting back up from the previous attack, she probably wouldn't have pressed it. But fear has a way of making people do crazy things. The Bug Unision activated under Voltra Merge, which was Mayl's original choice. The merge took hold Roll's purple color disappeared and was replaced by a gray-purple Voltra Merge. The antenna had now changed to a dark blue while the data remained yellow. Roll took aim and fired, "Sonic Arrow!"

The arrow zipped across the field and hit right on target. Mortis was beginning to look worse for wear. His body was actually beginning to show signs of being bugged. However, the glowing soon ceased. Mortis was never happier for his BugStop program.

"Yo-yo 3! White Capsule!" Megaman's hand switched to that of a spiked yo-yo and he fired causing Mortis to become paralyzed. The chained navi struggled to move as his body became unresponsive.

"I think you'll need these. It'll only be right if you do it." Lan said as he held out four battle chips in his hand.

Mayl's eyes beamed, sending over a thank you. She would have just thanked him, but the paralysis appeared to be wearing off already, "Program Advance! Aqua Sword, Elec Sword, Bamboo Sword, Fire Sword! Elemental Sword! Now, Roll!" Roll's hand changed into a simple cyber sword, around it swirled the different elements.

Mortis barely had time to react before she started attacking.

_Fire Slash_, "That's for what you did to Mayl!"

_Aqua Slash,_ "That's for what you did to Saber!"

_Elec Slash, _"That's for what you did to me!"

_Wood Slash_, "And that's for what you were going to do to Mega!"

The navi jumped backwards next to her boyfriend and charged one final shot. She looked to her side to see Megaman do the same.

"Sonic Arrow!"

"Thunder Bolt!"

"Gagghh!" Mortis screamed as the combined attack hit him. The navi collapsed to his knees as Megaman and Roll cautiously walked over. Stories would have to wait while Mortis was still alive. For the first time, both operators and navis were seriously considering just deleting him.

The downed navi started laughing, "Well I guess everything can't according to plan. Of course, I guess when you work for chaos; there is no chance of anything going right."

"Who is CHAOS?" Megamam growled.

"It is not a what. Not anymore, everyone's already been deleted. It's a who. By now, that's only two people, unless that crazy woman wants to make more navis! But it won't matter now. Her end game will come soon. Just like mine. …And just like yours. Graveyard Chains!" Mortis said. Chains wrapped around Megaman's arms and legs. Two additional ones tripped Roll and knocked her off her feet. Mortis jumped up and grabbed Megaman's emblem.

Roll would have fired, but there was no way to hit Mortis without hitting Mega.

"Now, if you would Hikari, download that chip data into Megaman would you please? Either that, or your best friend is about to become nothing more than data bits. And I'm afraid that I won't be raising him from the dead."

"Let him go," Roll said lowly, keeping her bow trained on him.

"Scary you are not my dear. Your dark soul was much more threatening. But this little whelp just had to ruin all that and let out that nasty noisy to deactivate all those programs I put into that chip and disorient your darker half enough for you to take control again. AT least I can take solace in the fact that you will never be rid of her! Now," he squeezed the emblem tighter causing Megaman to let out a muffled yell. He could have just ripped it off at this rate, but his goal wasn't to delete him. Not yet anyway, "I'm beginning to go a little crazy. I don't think you want to see insane."

Lan pulled up the screen and felt his heart go into his stomach, "You can't be serious."

"Do it Hikari or I'll fulfill my role as executioner!" Mortis snarled.

"I'm…I'm sorry Megaman," Lan said softly, trying not to let a tear escape.

"I know, Lan."

"Bug Chain! Download!" In seconds, Megaman felt power flow into him. But it was uncontrollable. He hadn't felt this for years. He hadn't wanted to for years. No, this animalistic rage. No…he was in a nightmare. He didn't want to be a Cybeast host again! Not after the trouble he caused last time. Like it or not, Megaman had just been given back the power of Gregar. Megaman could feel the chip beginning to rewrite his code, re-adapting itself.

Roll backed up in shock as Megaman's bodysuit changed. Green armor began to replace blue. The head of a wolf replaced his helmet. As the transformation completed, she could see Hub's eyes lost in rage, "Graahh!" The Beast Out navi stared at the one who brought him back into this world.

Mortis smiled and jacked out of Mayl's PC. It took almost a minute for Roll to realize what had just happened. Mortis's plan had gone on without a hitch all along. He hadn't planned on dying here. He had planned on letting a Cybeast controlled Megaman run a rampage throughout the whole Net!

Beast Out Megaman broke his chains and stared at the pink navi in front of him. Was he deciding whether or not to attack her? She consider getting Mayl to jack her out, but then she remembered what happened when he turned dark last year. Just turning into a monster hurt him. If she ran, he might stay like that forever.

Gulping, she edged closer to the navi, "It's okay, Mega. I'm not going to hurt you." She said as her bow changed back into her hand, "It's okay Mega."

The navi growled and shook his head, "Can't…control…can't…stay…" he grumbled and before Roll could try to talk him out of it, he dashed out of her PC.

"Where is he going?" Mayl asked.

"I…I don't know." Lan said dejectedly.

"Hub…"

* * *

Update: Friday

Ghost: Well...that happened. Roll's back with a brand new power to finally give her an offensive edge (though this one really has quite the requirement to be met), but Dark Roll is still hanging on somewhere in her head. And Hub's gone Beast Over so he's pretty much losing his mind. By the way BalanceM88, hope that answer your question about new Dark Powers and ShadowDusk94, that was who was roaring in the studio. Currently MM GBeast is being held in a cage until he calms down. I honestly don't know what set him off except for Falzar appearing that one time. Maybe that did it? Anypanel...

Bass: I come into the scene! It's about time!

Ghost: Someone help me...Ghost501 logging...

Bass: No you don't! You will stay here until Wednesday!

Ghost: 100000000000 zenny then.

Bass: WHAT?

Ghost: I need to be paid for overtime.

Bass: You get paid?

Ghost: You should know, everyone who is on the set pays me.

Bass: How does that work?

Ghost: Go look it up on the Internet.

Bass: Fine. *leaves*

Ghost: *blinks a couple of times* Wow...I can't believe that actually worked. Anypanel, Ghost501 logging out!

* * *

**Clarity Check!**

Ghost: So a bit happened this chapter so I'll break down a couple things.

How did Dark Roll get merges: Remember that Mortis has possession of both of Dawn's programs, one which manipulates the mind through the electricity in the PET and one that controls the mind. Both programs have been tweaked which allowed Mortis to have somewhat control over Roll and access into her PET despite her not being connected to it.

When Dark Roll/Roll thinks Megaman is deleted, is her character overdone: I could see how that could be seen, but remember the poor navi is already stressed with having her body being possessed, then add Mortis's plot into it, and then imagine being told the love of you life is dead. I think you'd be inclined to act a little out of character.

What the heck was Mortis up to?: Okay, here we go. Dawn originally had Mortis go to Saber to rough him up and at least have him ready for when she needed files of either Megaman or Roll since she wanted both of their codes. Mortis, tired of being fifth fidel, acted on his own and tried to bring Dawn a "type" of Roll for her to analyze as a test to ensure what she thought of him. However, after her research, Dawn realized that Black Earth navis are an entirely different breed of Dark navis and are much more chaotic that the ones influenced by Dark Chips. Confirming that she might as well hate him, Mortis then acts on a plan that will hopefully plunge the Net into chaos by unleashing the chaotic force known as Megaman Gregar Beast, or GBeast. So yeah, he had no intentions of dying in that fight. He was worried about Dawn sending Void, but he still had Dark Roll up his sleeve at the time. How he got Dawn's programs? He copied them from her computer before the beginning of DN3. Not stated in this story, but Dawn actually has a life beyond her house (BAAM! Just shocked you all didn't I).

Bug Unison?: You all may have noticed Roll's eye color has been shifting ever since Mortis activated those programs in Roll. It wasn't entirely just because Dark Roll and Roll were being merged together, about the same process as Dark Hub and Hub. Remember when I said navis can't code? He tried to follow Dawn's comments and take out the parts he thought he didn't need. Unfortunately, that resulted in a bug since they're really not supposed to be together like that. When she accessed her Merges, tac on that Dark Power and you get a Bug Unison ability as opposed to the Chaos Unison. More about this ability will be available next chapter.

* * *

_Later that day..._

*Ghost looks up from his desk*: Hmm...I wonder if I should release one of the two DNEs I'm hanging onto after DN3? Oh probably should clarify, people entering for contest, you do not have to make a Bug Unison for each merge since I will be doing what Chaos Unison and doing a recolor. You can however, suggest the color palette you think would work best for your entry. And you know what, I've been meaning to have a personal Q&A so here we go. From here to the next Friday (16th), you can ask me any question about how I handle DN or any of my stories.

*cricket appears*

Ghost: What? You thought I would let you guys ask about my personal life? Sorry, you currently possess none of the passwords for that information and I'm not sharing my security questions. I've probably already leaked enough as it is. Anyway, questions can range from why I decided to stop writing certain categories to what scenes in DN do I wish did better and so on. You can ask up to three questions. This fire sale lasts 'til the 16th and I have no idea when I'll do another one. Anyway, that's it for me!


	15. Chapter 14

**Review Responses:**

**ShadowDusk94:** I'm a nice guy so here. Catch up on some reading ( www . mangahere manga / megaman _ nt _ warrior /) Yeah, Mortis's little plot is going uphill but kind slowly since he lost one of his trump cards. Yep, you already know where Lan's heading after this mess. Well, anypanel here ya go!

**terratasha: **What part was that? I just remember Dark Mega and him being two different entities that existed together.

* * *

**Day 7 Part 2 - The Truth Behind The Code**

"Hmm…" Bass turned his head. Something powerful was stirring. As he closed his eyes, he realized he recognized this power. Megaman…but different. Bass's eyes snapped open as he realized that this power was very similar to his own. The power of a Cybeast. So, Megaman had found a way to awaken Gregar. This would be very interesting. As he hovered off, he noticed someone else taking the roads to the same power.

Despite changing his appearance, Bass recognized the navi. He had been the same one who had attempted to delete him in the Undernet! His eyes blazed with rage. He had half a mind to challenge the navi who dared sought to embarrass him. However, a different through popped into his mind. Why not test the navi? He had been unable to show Bass his true power last time. So why not see if he was up to the task.

Bass slowed and allowed the navi on the ground to overtake him. _'It's time to see what you can do.'_

* * *

"I don't get it, Dad. We've used the Bug Chain chip before. Megaman's never gone wild simply from using a battle chip." Lan said. After the fight with Mortis, he and Mayl had gone back to SciLab to make sure that Roll was alright. The adrenaline that had kicked through the young man's system was beginning to fade and tiredness was taking over. The past 24 hours were wearing him down.

"Mayl didn't you say that Roll's dark soul came after you downloaded a Variable Sword?" the doctor asked. Roll was still in sleep mode as he data was being scanned for any signs of her dark soul.

"Yeah, Saber had given it to her." Mayl explained.

"Would you put that data on a battle chip and let me see it please?" the young woman reached in her pocket for a spare chip and uploaded the data onto it. Once the transfer was done, she gave it to Dr. Hikari, "Thank you. Now let's see this chip," the man loaded the chip into the computer and began typing away.

As Mayl saw all the code appear on the screen, she couldn't help but nudge Lan, "Do you understand any of that?"

"A little. Battle chips are in a section of their own, but all code is pretty much the same," he replied, just a little proud that he could actually piece together what was on the screen.

"Hmm…clever. This is actually ingenuous, really." Dr. Hikari could help but praise the design.

"Dad, these chips sent Megaman on a Cybeast induced rage and turned Roll into a dark soul. I don't think we should be praising this," Lan mumbled. His nerves were too fried to entertain much of anything.

"Sorry, it's just that. Well, both of these appear to be regular chips, but they actually have the storage of a Mega class chips. In fact, the chip you used, Lan, has about as much byte space as a Giga class. It seems as though when the chips were activated, they were intended to work just like normally. But when they were activated, their Mega chip function ran as well. It introduced navi data into both Roll and Megaman's systems." Dr. Hikari typed in a few more commands, causing the computer to emphasize certain lines of code, "When this data was sent into their systems, it must have caused them to undergo their transformations. Hmm…this data is still stored in the chips. Let's see here."

Lan and Mayl gaped as they saw the stored information reveal itself. In the Variable Sword chip, "Roll Dark Soul" lay asleep. In the Double Beast chip, the cyber beast "Gregar" also was slumbering.

"They've been in there the whole time?" Mayl said incredulously.

"Yes, they have. Though now, these are just cyber images since the real ones were introduced back into Megaman and Roll's systems. Since Roll Dark Soul and Roll are almost the same navi, with a few exceptions, she must have integrated herself in Roll's systems. But something else must have happened. This chip data doesn't seem to merge the two navis together, so what did?"

"Merge them?" Lan asked.

"Yes, unlike Megaman, Roll's never been exposed to dark energy until the past couple of weeks. Even though they're similar, they still would have been in two minds, literally. But it looks like someone tried to tamper with her code at one point and tried to merge the two navis together. Perhaps to get rid of Dark Roll by having her coding being overwritten," Dr. Hikari pulled up another window, this one completely loaded with code, "But, it seems as she was a little to smart to fall for that. It seems like the Dark Roll made a last ditch effort after she was merged back into Roll. She's embedded herself into Roll's soul. Pretty severely too, she's locked herself into several important files. Even if we used a back-up chip, her core soul data has been tainted by her. I'm afraid the only way to get rid of her would be remake Roll from scratch."

"But, she could be entirely different! She'd forget everything; not just fighting, but all of us!" Lan started quietly.

"Well, you don't have to worry about that. The option is not available unless we want to lose her forever. Dr. Itumi just called me saying she received an email from the college she works at. Someone stole Roll's current program files. They're rigged to be deleted two hours after an unauthorized break-in, but apparently they haven't. She has the original copy, but so much has changed since she last used those. Even if she was remade, it would be impossible to give her the exact same experiences and then have her come out the same way again. Which means that remaking Roll in the exact same way is impossible." Dr. Hikari stated as he looked at the two young adults.

"WHAT!" the both said, surprised.

"Yes, Dr. Itumi was equally surprised. She's trying to recover as much data as she can from the lost files, but it's difficult. Whoever broke into her files did a number on the place. She may not be able to recover it all. However, it seems as if there is a light at the end of this tunnel."

"What is it?" Mayl asked, completely scared that she'd lose her best friend.

"I'm not sure how, but it seems as if Roll's code has adapted to her. Maybe the prolonged exposure and that last program advance caused this, but it appears that Roll has an ability to at least keep her dark soul in check. The Bug Unision. It looks like Megaman's Chaos Unison when dark chips were still around. Roll's merges merely become "bugged". However it seems that she can merely pass off the harmful traits of it only if her attacks connect. If the bug isn't passed on and she switches Merges then she becomes bugged."

"Kinda like when we missed our timing…" Lan mused.

"Exactly. The unison appears to switch Roll's defensive powers to offensive, but only as long as she herself isn't bugged. If the merge cancels out, she's locked out of her merges until the battle routine is finished or her bug is fixed. Something to keep in mind I guess," the doctor said before switching topics, "Anyway, someone must have caused their data to either meld them together. In the case of Megaman, this wouldn't happen. Hub has already installed Gregar into his systems in the past."

"But Colonel destroyed the Cybeast's soul. And you took out the Beast Out function from our PET," Lan said, confused. Plus, his dad had told him that Hub was extra paranoid about making sure his Beast Out and Dark Power wasn't in him anymore.

"This new Gregar must be infiltrating Megaman's systems just like beforehand. Only this time, it's forcibly installing itself. The worst part is that this is the spirit of the beast and not the navi. Had it been Megaman's Beast Out form hiding in the chip, I might be able to remove it. But with Gregar in there, it may be almost impossible."

"What I don't get is how in the world did Mortis revive Gregar? Did it and Falzar get deleted together?" Mayl asked.

"Yes, but Gregar was created naturally by bugs. With everything we've learned about that navi, I wouldn't be surprised if he found a way to speed up the process and make his own Gregar."

"So what now?" Lan asked.

"Roll will still be out for a couple more hours. After seeing this, I need to double check to make sure that her dark soul isn't still floating around in her somewhere. Until then, you'll need to find a navi to go after Megaman. I'm not sure how long he will be able to hold his own against the beast, especially after being so out of practice."

Lan nodded and turned back to Mayl, "You going to be okay?"

"I'll be fine," she said turning back to see her navi actually sleeping for once in the past week, "You've already helped me get her back. Now go worry about your brother. Saria should be at the hospital with her father. I think she said that he was room 214. Oh before you go, can you give this email to Saber. I think Roll meant to send it before she got put into sleep mode." Normally, she would have just sent it herself. But after all that had happened, sometimes personal or hand delivery went a long way.

"Thanks, I will" he said as he downloaded the email and ran for the door.

"Be careful!" Mayl yelled after him. When she looked back to the doctor, she noticed that he seemed a little tenser than he had a few seconds ago. His face had gone a deathly pale, "Are you okay, Dr. Hikari?"

"Yes, I'll be fine. I'm just not very fond of that number," he cleared his throat and continued scanning through Roll's code.

"Was that your room number when you were admitted?" she asked. Lan had never liked talking about his dad's trip to the hospital. He had still felt somewhat guilty over the whole ordeal, no matter her or his family telling him that it wasn't his fault.

"No…it was someone else's," he said quietly. The tone of his voice made Mayl stop asking questions.

Since she would be of no help to him at all, she decided to finally catch up on some sleep and grabbed a chair in the room. As she closed her eyes, she couldn't help but wonder just why the doctor would hate that number so much. Obviously, the person who had been in that room was important to him. Something terrible must have happened for him to react this badly over it. As she was on the verge of nodding off, the answer came to her. It would have jarred her out of her sleep, except that her body was overriding her brain and was causing her to drift off.

Room 214 had been Hub Hikari's room.

* * *

For the first time, Dark Hub had no idea where he was, which was a first for him. He was used to being the one in control. He knew every move that Hub was going to make. He knew exactly what his other half was thinking. Now, he was having trouble even discerning what in the world Hub was contemplating. Dark Hub gazed at his hand; it was becoming more and more see through.

He was disappearing back into the boy. Back into hiding. But for how long? Hub knew of his existence now. Blue boy wouldn't be so willing to let his mind fall into rage once again. He had missed his chance at living all because of his stupid brother and that accursed navi, Saber. He had been certain that he would have been able to manipulated Hub into allowing him one more chance at freedom. But Lan had once again pulled through and had blocked him from fulfilling his wishes.

Then, he had just become lost in darkness. It was immediately after Lan had used that Bug Chain chip. His vision into the outside world had become patchy and then just cut out altogether. What had Megaman been deleted and now he was reduced to nothing but a floating spirit? Dark Hub pounded the ground, not that it did anything. The dark soul found himself flat on the ground since up to his forearm was gone.

No! How did he have such little time? Where had it all gone! Hub couldn't have blocked him out so easily, could he? Dark Hub shivered. This world he was in was much different than anything else he had experienced. There was no right or wrong. There was no light or dark. It was just nothing. A simple order that he had to follow: be still and realize that your life is nothing but fate. He couldn't accept that! What kind of game was this?

He found his answer in the form of a growl. He shrunk back as he began to realize just what all this meant. Beast Out Megaman walked towards him. Of course, this world was seen through the eyes of an animal, not a human! He had no power here and neither did Hub. The navi picked him up and growled. It seemed to be wondering just what to do with its prey. Dark Hub couldn't feel his legs anymore. As Gregar became more powerful, he became less. The human side of Hub was being lost to this beast. Even if Hub were to wake up now, he wouldn't be able to take him over again. He had lost.

As the rest of him disappeared and melded back into Megaman, a single tear hit the ground. He hadn't wanted to die, but that was just what was happening to him. Back into slumber for heaven knew how long. He only hoped that one day he would be able to look back through at world with human eyes once again. Though of course, they would be his eyes and his world.

* * *

Lan wasn't particularly fond of Beach Street Hospital. Too many bad memories lied in these walls. This was the place that Mamarou had almost died in. This was the place where he left Mayl unconscious after drugging her over a year ago. This was where he recovered from his own injuries after she had saved him. This was where he lost his brother.

Shortly after being born and released from the hospital, Hub Hikari had been diagnosed with a strange disease known as HBD. To his surprise, Lan had never discovered just what the acronym meant despite the disease taking his brother's life. His mother had told him that Hub had only lasted four months after he had been born. Little did anyone know that behind the scenes Dr. Hikari had taken a DNA sample of his son in order to preserve his soul. This secret would remained lost to the world for eleven years before a near deletion encounter with Magicman would cause Lan, Chaud, Mayl, Roll, and Protoman to learn the truth about the blue bomber.

Lan had a hard time believing that it had been almost eight years since that day had come. He wondered just how life would have been if Hub had somehow had survived. He quickly shook that thought off. No, he didn't want his brother to be still alive. Why? That would mean several years of pain and strife. That would mean years of countless hospital visits. That would mean that Hub Hikari would never have been able to actually _live_ for a day in his life. It had taken them eleven years to come up with a surgery that could save a HBD victim. He never wanted to see that happen to Hub.

Mamarou had described HBD as a silent killer and monster. You would be fine for a while and then your throat would close up. It would become hard to breathe. You could feel your heart race. It was like it would literally jump out of your chest. The fear would begin to get to you. You wondered if this attack would be the one or would the doctors save you. Would you be able to rest and leave your mind to wonder when the next attack would come? Lan shivered as he entered the elevator up to room 216; the nurse at the front desk told him that Jason had been relocated just recently to a different room. No, he would hate to condemn Hub to such a fate just to have him besides him.

Lan pressed the button for the second floor and the doors closed.

* * *

Update: Monday

Ghost: Yep, the Bug Unison is equal to Chaos Unison. Roll now has Dark Power!

Bass: Why are you repeating yourself? You said this last chapter...

Ghost: Clarification. Any lucky finding links on the Net?

Bass: Nope.

Ghost: Huh, didn't think you were the type to give up.

Bass: Why you! *leaves*

Ghost: *smiles* It's going to be a sad day when he realizes there isn't a link. Anypanel, Roll's power is a little more severe. If you messed up with a Chaos Unison, Dark Megaman would annoy you in the game. If Roll messes up or her attacks are just completely blocked all together, she'll become bugged and can't merge for the rest of the fight. Factoring that she is not a fighting navi, you get the picture of how south that can go. And the enemies are only getting stronger. And yes, this is why I released THHF before DN3. Any newcomers confused about all this background on Hub Hikari read DNB: THHF. That should answer you're questions. Ghost501 logging out!


	16. Chapter 15

**Review Responses:  
**

**terratasha: **Yeah, had to get some loose ends wrapped up. But yeah, time for fights! Fights all over the Beach Network today folks! Well, I can always try again next time. XD. Anyway, isn't that the case with most dark half cases? If they just took the time to actually not kill everything in immediate sight, they'd probably get a lot farther than they normally do. But I guess that might be because he's been a bit of a taunter in this case. He really only broke out twice in this series. Ah well, hurrah for reoccurring problems!

**ShadowDusk94:** Yep, that's why I released THHF first. Kinda a small reason really, but I thought it was important enough to do so. Well, Void stole and destroyed everything in Dr. Itumi's workspace so essentially there's nothing left but the current model of Roll which is infected. So, yeah. Bug Unison is a tough thing to handle, but the offensive pattern in some merges are worth it. Plus, you could just put BugStop in the NaviCust. Yeah, the history of Saber and the Hikaris has been kinda rough hasn't it? Bass is going after GBeast; Void is going after Mortis. Just so happens that Void is using GBeast to track down Mortis.

**Contest ends Friday at midnight!****  
**

**Day 7 Part 3 - Void Beast Special**

"I don't like this." Dawn said as she sat on her chair. She had just spent the last hour trying to finish reading all of Dr. Itumi notes. The woman had spent most of her life trying to create the first emotional navi. What a waste of time. The notes mentioned notes of a Merge system, but no finished product. Useless since that was the navi's only redeeming qualities. She didn't need her navis to be able to relate to her. She needed them to be ruthless, cold, and battle ready.

Dawn scoffed. Roll really wasn't much of a threat after all. However, she couldn't stop thinking about the navi. Well more or less, the dark soul of the navi. Dr. Regal had mentioned that dark souls were chaotic and branched upon their own sickened form of independence. Left to their own devices, dark soul navis were capable of unspeakable evil. It took immediate recognition of power in order to rein them in. Once they were shown just who the better side to join was, they were among the best foot soldiers.

And she had had one. The problem was that she didn't trust Dark Roll. The dark soul navis in Black Earth grew up without a master. Who knew how that would make their temperament? Dawn wasn't about to discover that. However, Mortis had been late coming back.. She knew that the navi's trust in her was waning. She could see it in his eyes. He had become more and more sarcastic in his nature. Yet another failure. Did every navi she make have to develop some unforgivable trait? Well, at least her greatest accomplishment hadn't shown any signs.

"It's been a day, Dawn. Would you like me to go after him?" Void offered.

"Yes, he's become dead weight. Delete him on sight." Dawn replied as Void jacked out onto the Net.

* * *

As Void walked around, he began to wonder just how in the world he would be able to track Mortis. The navi had dropped off the radar and had managed to find a way to disable any kind of way for Dawn to track him. He had to admit, the navi was good. Then again, perhaps he had learned a few things on the job. From what he remembered, before he was reprogrammed and designed, Mortis had been a quiet navi. He often stayed to himself and was more focused on his ghosts that he was with the goals of Dawn. He was also surprisingly observant. It wouldn't surprise Void if Mortis had been planning these events for months.

For being a revival navi, he was extremely crafty. His ability made him easy to catch, if you were able to deal with the navi he revived that was. Through recently, he remembered that the chained navi had looked extremely tired one day. He actually had been gone several days after he reported to Dawn. Of course, he scoffed off the holy incident as Mortis taking on too much than he could chew. Mortis wasn't powerful enough to revive anything truly dangerous. It was more than likely one of those World Three flunkies like Beastman.

Then he heard it. The sound of a howl came from deep in the Beach Street Network. It sounded much more powerful than anything Dr. Wily could have designed. But yet, it sounded so…wounded? Perhaps whatever it was had been engaged in battle with Megaman. Void dashed toward the network only to have someone cut him off.

"Screen Divide!" a voice yelled. Void quickly jumped out of the way, barely missing as a green sword slashed across him.

Void gained his footing back and stared at the revived version of Colonel. EXE, "So, the coward sends a messenger to fight rather than himself. Or are you here to stop me from finding him trying to gain control of whatever chaos he's unleashed in Beach Street?"

The navi eyed him silently and raised his sword again.

"Right. I forgot that your kind doesn't talk. Then again, you're still as good as deleted. But you'll be useful for helping me delete your reviver as soon as I find him!" Void's right hand switched to a gray blade and the navi charged.

"Induct Missile!" Colonel raised a red rectangular box in the air and fired several missiles into the air. They all turned in the air as they homed in on Void.

The navi dropped his charge and raised his hand, "Void Hole!" The missiles fell into a black hole. Void turned his attention to Colonel and the missiles flew out of the black hole and knocked the navi off his feet.

"Neo Screen Divide!" Colonel launched forward and slashed each of the projectiles that were sent his way. The navi continued down his war path and attacked Void. The red navi blocked his attacks. This one was good. He carried the actual Colonel's ferocity and power. He would definitely be a good addition to his arsenal.

Void jumped back and a green orb grew in his hand. As he landed, the red navi fired a Wood Tower at the sword wielder. Colonel merely raised his sword, "Screen Divide V!" he slashed through the attack, once again leaving the two at a stalemate.

Void growled. This was the first navi who had actually attempted to put up a fight. Most of the navis he absorbed and assimilated where brought unexpectedly and weakened. A sudden thought ran through him. Had Mortis been playing him all along? This navi seemed fresh, but most of them he brought to him had been damaged. Mortis had said he couldn't have helped the run-ins with the officials, but what if he could. Had he sabotaged him?

"Void Held!" Void launched a small black ball at the navi. As it grew closer, Colonel began to lose his footing. The sphere had its own sense of gravity! Colonel's eyes blazed and he raised his sword again, slashing through the orb. However, he had been unable to stop Void from slashing across Colonel, connecting for the first time.

The black navi stumbled back. It had been a solid hit, but not even close enough to bring him down, "Aspire Break!" Colonel threw his cape at the red navi. Void grabbed the cape in the air, what kind of attack was...

Void clutched his side as he realized what had just happened. The cape had been a distraction. Colonel had gone in for the kill. Void had taken severe damage from his last attack. No! He was not going to be defeated by this navi, nor any other navi. He would take Colonel's power and become even more powerful than him.

"Pathetic…" Void turned his head to see a cloaked navi standing in front of the two.

Bass.

"This doesn't concern you!" the red navi growled.

Bass paid no attention to either of them, "Neo Buster Rake!" He fired his buster several times at both navis. Not missing a beat, the navi rushed Void, "Gaia Break!" he slammed the very ground Void was standing on with extreme force. The navi was flung backwards as Bass turned his attention to Colonel, "Dark Arm Blade!"

Colonel raised his sword to block the attack, only to have Bass break it. Bass slashed the navi across the chest. The black navi stumbled back as Bass grimaced. This one _was_ a waste of time, "Gaia Break!"

When Void got back up to his feet, there was nothing left of Colonel but his deleted data. Bass turned back to him, "I should delete you after your insult to me last year. However, I don't waste my time with weak navis like yourself. Perhaps it was luck that had you self-destruct on your own powers. You could barely defeat that pitiful whelp of a navi. Why should I bother with you, when he is out there gaining more power?" Bass waved his hand at him, "To think I once thought you may have been a problem to me. Your weakness disgusts me." Bass merely walked away and continued down the path towards Beach Street.

Void's fist hit the ground in frustration. "Jack out, Void." Dawn said and he was sent out of the Net.

* * *

"So, you want to borrow Saber to look for Megaman?" Saria asked. Her hand was still wrapped around Jason's who was sleeping. He had cracked several ribs and broken a leg in his accident causing him to be on pain medication.

"If you wouldn't mind." Lan said.

"No problem. I was probably going to be here a little longer anyway."

"How is he?" Lan asked as Saber jumped into his PET.

"It's going to take some time to heal, but it's better than being watched by Mortis." She said sadly.

"I'm glad. Well, thanks for allowing me to use him."

"The pleasure's all mine," before Lan left she spoke again, "Oh and Lan, if you find Mortis, send him packing for me and Jason."

"You got it. Though Roll gave him a pretty good beating before he left. Which reminds me, Saber. You have an email." Lan smirked before leaving the room. As he stepped back out into the hallway, the brunette noticed that a faint red glow was coming from Room 214, across the hall. He had been so distracted that he hadn't even noticed the fact that Saber looked like he was crying.

When he looked back at the navi, he almost double taked, "Saber?"

"She's not mad…" he said quietly.

"What?"

"Roll! She's not made at me. Though she says I owe her a present of her choice. Wait…I don't have any money."

"And you think she doesn't know that?" Lan joked back. _'Like operator, like net navi.'_ He thought.

"Ah man. I'm going to be zenny grinding for a few days," he grumbled. But on the inside, he was happy as ever. Her email said she wanted to hear the whole story when she woke up from sleep mode, but she told him that she knew he was being used. She didn't think any less of him. Though the next time he came into her comp without asking first, he was going to get it. He wouldn't have it any other way.

Allowing the emotion to settle, Lan looked back at Room 214, "Hey Saber, does that room have anyone in it?" Lan asked.

"I don't think so. I think the hospital is still trying to make sure that all the machines are clean. They were quite embarrassed when Protoman told them an unauthorized person had gained access to the machines." Saber replied.

"That's what I thought." Lan stepped inside the room. None of the machines had been turned on with the exception of a single computer monitor. It didn't even seem like the computer was meant to do anything. Lan gaped as he noticed who was inside. Why would Megaman come all the way to Beach Street? Lan thought that his first instinct would have been the Underground. For whatever reason, Lan was at least happy that he wouldn't have to go too far in order to track him.

"Jack in, Saber, Execute." Lan said quietly, he didn't want to scare him off.

* * *

'_Home…'_ Beast Out Megaman thought. Like any confused animal, he returned back to the place where he was most comfortable. His mind told him that Lan's PC was no longer a safe place to hide and the Underground had grown to bleak for him to even believe that was home. He had been drawn here. He knew this place.

'_Congratulations Mr. and Mrs. Hikari, you have two boys!" _the navi tilted his head. Yes, he had been born here in this hospital. That was why this place had felt so special to him. But then why did this place fill him with such dread? He walked closer to the terminal in the small cyber space. He didn't know what compelled him to it, but something told him to go to it.

'_Hub didn't make it. I'm terribly sorry for your loss.'_ He had…died here. In this hospital. In this room. He had been isolated from the other babies. But, if he was dead…then…how was he alive now?

"Megaman!" a voice called.

The beast navi turned to see a blue and green navi standing behind him. Instantly, whatever reason that he had accumulated was gone. Territorialism set in. This navi wanted his home for himself. He wasn't going to let it happen! Whether or not he died here, he was here now and he wasn't going to let anyone take away what was his. This was his new home, his birthplace and birthright. He wasn't going to let anyone take that away from him.

"Uh...I think I just made him angry, Lan…" Saber said as he backed away from Megaman. The navi roared; all form of reason was gone.

"Shoot! I guess we don't have much of a choice! Saber, Battle Routine, Set!" Lan hadn't wanted it to come to this, but this was the only other way to communicate with Megaman when he was like this.

"Execute!"

* * *

Megaman fired several shots as his arm turned into a Vulcan like weapon. Saber jumped out of the line of fire and caught himself. How many times was he going to have to fight this guy?

"Elec Blade! Download! Saber, you need to keep close to him, otherwise he'll come to you!" Lan said.

Saber's sword switched to a metal blade which crackled with electricity. The blue navi ran towards his enemy, who was also speeding towards him. Claws met blade as the navis clashed. Megaman was only slightly stunned from the blade's electricity. The navi's eyes went red as it continued his attack. Megaman grabbed Saber's Elec Blade and slammed the blade over his knee, causing Saber to fall down due to momentum.

Saber rolled out of the way just in time before the green navi opened fire again. Saber clambered up to his feet, "Yeah, I don't think he likes me."

"Yo-yo 3! Bommer 3! Download!" Saber's hand was replaced with a yo yo as a boomerang was fired around the field. Saber rocketed his yo-yo at Megaman. The faster navi dodged out of the way, but forgot the boomerang. It intercepted Megaman on its second trip around.

"Raarrr!" Megaman growled. The attack only seemed to make him angrier. The Beast Out navi started breathing fire.

"Break Sabre!" Saber rolled out of the way of the recent set of flames and charged the navi again with his sword. The two once again met in a fierce match.

"Hub! I know you're in there! Snap out of it! You can control this thing! You've done it before and you can do it again!" Lan shouted.

'_There's that name again.'_ Saber thought as he continued his assault. He would have to ask someone about that later. Now though, he just had to worry about keeping pressure on Megaman. However, Saber noticed one thing. The navi had faltered for a split second when Lan called out that Hub character.

"Lan! I don't know what you're doing, but he's listening! Keep it up!" Saber yelled.

"Hub, I need you to remember who you are! You're not some kind of animal! You're my brother!"

The beast faltered again. This time Saber managed to score a hit on him. However, Megaman was now clutching his head. Almost as if he was trying to do what Lan had told him. Wait, did Lan call him his brother? He had heard about navis becoming like family, but it was the way Lan said it. He made it seem as if there was more than just a navi simply being a part of the family.

"Come on, Hub! I know you're there. Remember me! And Mayl and Roll! Even Saber and Saria! We're all pulling for you! Come back, Hub! Wake up! WAKE UP!"

"Grar!...LAN…!" Megaman groaned.

"Saber, now! Program Advance! Elec Blade! Bamboo Blade! Fire Blade! Aqua Blade! Elemental Blade!" Saber ran again at the navi and slashed at the navi with the different elements. As the navi fell down to the ground, Megaman's armor began to recede. His body began to glow as the growls started to die down. In a few seconds, Saber was unable to see a thing. When his vision returned, the navi laid on the ground.

"Megaman!" Saber ran up to the blue navi.

"Uggh…Saber?" Megaman groaned.

"Glad to have you back." Saber said as the navi's eyes rolled into the back of his head, "Go ahead and jack him out Lan. He's had a long day." Once Megaman had jacked out, Saber headed towards the main network to go back to Saria. Now with Megaman safe, things could finally begin to return to normal. Except they never would be. Mortis was still out there and he wouldn't be happy that he had actually helped the blue bomber rather than sink anybody. He just hoped that Mortis wouldn't come up with anymore plans. He'd rather not relive the past few days all over again.

Bass looked out as the fight began to simmer down. Megaman had reconquered the power of Gregar. Good. Their fight wouldn't have been interesting enough without it. As Bass turned to leave, he couldn't help but have second thoughts about not deleting that navi. But then he brushed those thoughts away, no matter what form that navi took, he would always be the one who failed. Those were just the rules. Only the strong survived and that red navi was certainly not one of the strong.

* * *

Update: Friday

Ghost: Remember when I was saying that _The Hub Hikari Files_ was important? This is why. As a beast, Hub went back to his birthplace. Seemed logical when I wrote it. Oh, for anyone wondering where Bass was, he left cause for some reason I can't have active characters in this world. Should get around to fixing that at some point but...must play Pokemon (by the way if anyone wants to challenge me I'm on play. pokemonshowdown .com. I'm not the world's greatest but hopefully I can be a somewhat challenge. Just let me know when.).


	17. Epilogue

**Followers: **anarkhist91

**Review Responses:**

**Devanor:** Yeah. Never really put a damage cap on it, but let's just say that Saber would have been in a world of hurt if he actually had been blasted by that. On another note, thanks for the review in DN2! I try to read over my stuff before publishing it, but hey can't be perfect. Thanks for the comment though!

* * *

**Contest ends tonight!**

* * *

**Day 8 - Calm After The Storm**

Dawn typed on her computer furiously. As she examined the code in front of her, she cursed. Mortis _had_ screwed them over. The navis he summoned for her as battle templates were all secondary forms! He must have grown stronger without her realizing since he claimed to be exhausted after summoning the secondary version of Quickman. Dawn's knuckles went white. Now that he was free, Mortis was probably off creating his own army!

Now that she had based Void's battle designs off of bad data, he was useless against these newer forms. Colonel SP had been an unfortunate wake up call to her. Dawn walked over to her PET, a red and purple device, on her table. She pressed a few buttons and found Dr. Hikari's old clearance code that Crashman had discovered. It was one of the few things she could pull out of that failure's memory. She needed to get back into SciLab.

Over the year, the science building had beefed up its security. It had become more difficult for Dawn to mere float her way into the system. She actually had to try now. However, in order to get the files she needed, she would need Void in order to actually have the time to get the files.

_'The Navi Project,'_ she thought. This whole situation led her to SciLab. It was there were most navis were created anyway. It was where she would find information on Bass. EXE. It was where she would be able to discover just what the hell was Hub. She had discovered the name when she had scan through Roll's memory. However, even under her conditions, she wouldn't reveal just what that name meant. All she had been able to pull was from the pink navi about the topic of Hub.

Dawn turned back to Void, who was in sleep mode. Yes, her next stop would be SciLab once again. Only this time, she was going to show them just what there Adapt Program could do.

* * *

"I never imagined I'd be putting this function back into your PET," Dr. Hikari said as he hand Lan back the PET. On the side of it lied a small button that looked like the head of a wolf, allowing Megaman to channel the power of Gregar. It had been a week later that the doctor had finally been able to properly integrate the Beast Out function back into the PET's new systems.

"We never imagined Gregar being a problem again," Lan replied as he took the device out of his father's hand.

"Yes, this has been quite the ordeal hasn't it? How's Hub doing?"

"He's a lot better now. He's had no problems with Dark Hub or even the Cybeast since he came back. He's been hanging out a lot at Roll's PC, but then again he doesn't like the sub PET very much."

Dr. Hikari chuckled, "I'm glad. It's about time that boy got some rest."

"The only thing that bugs me is that why Megaman went to that room. I mean, out of everywhere he could have gone, he came to the hospital and to that room. It's almost like he was drawn to it."

"Perhaps," the doctor sighed, "There are many reasons why he could have gone there. The good news is that you found him and saved him. And know we can focus more on CHAOS. Something tells me that this is only the tip of the ice burg with them."

"I had the same feeling too, Dad." Lan frowned.

His dad took a deep breath, "Well, we can focus on them another day. You must be tired, plus aren't you meeting up with Mayl today?"

"Oh…" Lan said, his face paling.

"Let me guess, you were supposed to meet her somewhere already and you forgot waiting for your PET, didn't you?"

"I didn't factor us talking when I told her to wait fifteen minutes….an hour ago."

"I'd hurry if I were you. Like your mother says, 'It's not good to keep a lady waiting.' I think an hour is enough time."

"You're right. Thanks dad, I'll see you back at home later!" his son said as he ran out of the room.

Dr. Hikari waved to his son and returned back to his work. For a brief moment, he had considered telling his son about Room 214. But in the end, he just couldn't. With so much going on, it wouldn't be fair. Maybe one day—in front of both of them—he would be able to tell them just what happened in that room. But for now, he barely had the heart to remember the events themselves. So much joy gone in such a short amount of time. He could still hear his wife sobbing as the doctors came out and told them that Hub had gone. He could remember his own heart pounding when he finally finished the code of his Navi Project and ran it, hoping that his son would return to him.

Dr. Hikari reach in his desk and took out a small picture. In the picture, his beautiful wife was smiling while holding two little bundles. On the right, sporting a little blue hat, wrapped in a blue blanket, and wailing his head off, was Lan Hikari. On the left, in a similar get up but somehow content and snoozing, was Hub Hikari. It was only hours after that the picture was taken when the world seemed to spiral uncontrollably. It was hours later that the doctors came back telling news that caused the doctor to retreat into his work to complete the last five percent of his work. It was four months after that picture had been taken that Hub Hikari had disappeared from the physical world.

It was four months after that picture had been taken when Megaman. EXE had been born. Dr. Hikari put the picture back in the corner of his desk. Yes, one day he would be able to tell his sons about his terror filled four months in that room. But not now. Now, they deserved to rest in peace.

The doctor shook his head and returned back to his work.

* * *

Ghost: DONE! DN3 is done! WHOOOOOO! And finally, there are more people to talk to other than Bass! So what'd you guys think?

Roll/Megaman: We still have dark souls to deal with...the heck.

Ghost: Yeah...but you guys got new powers...

Roll: Do you honestly think we like having those two in our heads?

Ghost: Did you honestly expect me to not to? If you did, who have you been talking to and why does he look and sound like me?

Bass: Seriously, why are you so stingy with with my camera time? The OC has more screen time than I do!

Saber: *sigh* So, this is what it's like to be the new guy...

Roll: It's okay. *hugs*

Ghost: You're still annoying, Bass. Also, don't be rude to my character. Hmm...what if Dark Roll and Dark Hub deleted Bass. That could be a thing right?

Bass: You will never be safe in Graveyard Area...

Ghost: Yeah, yeah. I can beat you. Maybe not S rank, but I can still beat you. Anyway...okay Bass, stop glaring at me! You'll get your screen time in DN4. Which...I'll work on later because...DN3.5 is coming up next on the work order! This one is a collaborative effort with not only me and Gav, but Fanfiction writer and devianArt-ist BassDS. The title might change later but for now stay turned for more information about _Megaman Double Network 3.5: Operation Star Break_. . No date as of yet, but I'll post a story giving that date later. Thank you all so much for all the support! So until then...I mean I guess you guys can read this. Can't promise that DN3.5 will be done for the conclusion but um...this is happening...

**Estimated Date: May 31st:** _Megaman Battle Network 5 Disconnect: Dark Empire_

Ghost: Yep folks, that's Dark Hub x Dark Roll fic I've been ever so subtly hinting at is finally here! Ever wanted to know what happens when you corrupt Megaman during the final boss (Nebula Gray) fight. Well, let's find out how it plays in my head. Khehehe...Ohhhh, this is going to be fun!

Megaman: *looks at Roll and back to Ghost* Someone help us...

Ghost: Ghost501 logging out! Thanks for reading. Don't forget to review! What do you guys think BN5D will be about? Oh, and the contest results will be posted on May 31st too! Remember tonight's the deadline! Don't submit after 12 am tonight! I'll probably just send over Bass with an I'm sorry message. See ya in a couple of weeks!

* * *

To let everyone know, I'm not releasing the names of the winners until the 31st. But for the sake of time, I will be updating the DNs between all the time I have. So if you check back at certain chapters and see your design, rejoice and prepare to be celebrated on the 31st. Also, **high** probability that I will be having another contest for other Merges since there a still a couple more merges to go. Ghost501 logging out.


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